Back around 1960 or so, my uncle (who was in his early thirties at the time) suffered a mild heart attack. I don't know the circumstances surrounding this illness or what caused it but that's not my point. While he was recovering in the hospital, he had nothing at all to do but lie in bed staring out the window. While doing this, he noticed a chipmunk in a tree outside. The chipmunk would run down the tree, dig around in the dirt, find something edible and bring it back up into the tree where he would stuff his face until his cheeks nearly burst. My uncle watched this little guy repeat this routine for days and slowly realized that he had never really taken the time to pay attention to any of the "little things". He never "stopped to smell the roses" as they say and almost lost the opportunity completely.

Too many people go about their days without a second (or even first) thought to the intricacies of the world around them. They are too wrapped up in their daily lives to stop and simply notice what's going on around them. Too busy to sit and look out the window without thinking about bills or kids or work. Too important to be bothered to look at vermin collecting nuts. There are so many simple pleasures in life if you just take the time to look for them.

My wife is a very "occupied" person who rarely slows down. In addition to working 40+ hours per week, she's raising two teenage boys AND going to college for her Associates Degree in business management. She has almost no time to relax, never mind watch chipmunks. However, there are times that she lets all of that go. In order for that to happen, she cannot be in the house - for her, all the world's problems melt away at the beach where she can stare at clouds, look for shells, get knocked around by waves and comment on how incredibly blue the sky is today. For hours on end, she notices the things she doesn't have time to pay attention to when she's in "the real world" like how some seagulls look dirty and others don't. Like how the sand moves across the beach when the wind blows. Like how well our boys get along when we're at that particular beach. In that environment, she stops and smells the ocean.

Myself, I was fortunate enough to have a mother who instilled in me the value of slowing down and noticing the small things. It was her brother who suffered the heart attack so she was well aware of his hospital bed revelation and taught me to pay attention to the flowers, birds, clouds and nature in general. I remember times in my teen years when I would stare at my hand for minutes on end looking at the pores, the hairs, the lines. Granted, I was probably under the influence of something at the time - I suppose I'm lucky to remember anything at all from that time in my life.