Reflective Notice, Missoula, Montana

So as to not drive two cars to a coffee date yesterday, I started out walking and my husband picked me up on his way from our daughter‘s cheer team practice. Even though my route was the same as my morning drive 5 times a week, it was as if I was walking through totally different neighborhoods. With my daily focus on beating out the 7:48 a.m. dawdlers, I never noticed this irrigation ditch on the left side of the road. Or the tidy yard behind the chain link fence patiently woven with fake Christmas greenery to make it look like a hedge of some sort. At a couple corners I actually checked to be sure I was on the same street.
In today’s lunchtime reading, this quote stood out to me - & only partly because I like the rhythm of the last phrase: “The problem is that when urgency is the dominant factor in our lives, importance isn’t. We’re so caught up in doing, we don’t even stop to ask if what we’re doing really needs to be done. As a result, we exacerbate the gap between the compass and the clock.” - Stephen R. Covey, “First Things First”
Beyond stopping and smelling the roses, or paying attention to notice whatever is currently blooming in your life’s backyard, it’s wise to take stock of what is truly important, and give it a balanced place in life you have now. I’m gonna have to chew on that a bit more.