“Stop and smell the roses” has been said for years and years, but have we actually learned the lesson this simple phrase wants to teach us? We have a tendency to plow through our lives, constantly rushing around, and always in such a hurry. It is only human to fall into the habit of racing against time, but we have to slow down. We have to remember to stop, take a second, breathe, and take it all in. Living life in a scramble makes us miss out on the little things we pass by too quickly to notice. We miss chances to connect with people we have the opportunity to be inspired by and we continue to run through our days without giving this a second thought.

Think about your most recent trip to the grocery store. Grocery shopping, the dreaded chore we all have to do and want to be done with as soon as we possibly can. We all want our trips to Walmart and Kroger to be short and sweet, but what if we took the extra time? The last time you went grocery shopping, did you take a second to look at your cashier’s name tag? Did you ask them if they had been having a great day at work so far, or did you just pay for your groceries, say “thanks,” and walk away? In settings like this, we cannot forget that we are interacting with people. Human beings.

Taking the extra time can truly make a difference. We never know what people need to hear. We never know where they are coming from, or what they are going home to. What if you’re the only bit of kindness they encounter all day? If we always live in a mindset with a sense of responsibility for making others feel worthwhile, the amount of people we relate to would drastically increase.

Everyone has something to say. Every voice deserves the time to be heard, and every listener deserves the time to be spoken to. We all deserve to be told “happy birthday,” “I love you,” and “be careful.” Every single human deserves to know they matter. Taking extra time does not require hours or even minutes. Sometimes all it takes is an inviting smile, a warm hug, or a genuine compliment--little acts of kindness we all have time for.

Taking the extra time goes further than human interaction. It translates to our self-awareness and our capacity to be fully knowledgeable of the surroundings that contribute to our overall understanding and appreciation of the world we inhabit. We have to take the extra time to notice how sometimes sun rays creep down from they sky onto the ground in gorgeous, gleaming beams. We have to appreciate the way it smells after a rainstorm. We need to take the time and pay attention to how it sounds to be in a lively restaurant and relish in the joy of waking up from a fantastic nap.

Taking the extra time is an imperative, human thing we all have to embrace in order to spread love. In a time where hate seems to be taking over the world and violence is exerted within a matter of seconds, there is love that has to be put forth and welcomed by putting a little more effort into showing it. A little bit goes a long way. We have to stop and smell the roses, because no matter how pressed for time we may be, we all have a second to spare.