If you don’t stop to smell the roses, you never know what you are missing.

February 2, 2010 If you don’t stop to smell the roses, you never know what you are missing.

This is from a newsletter from Daryl Wizelman:
Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. A man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people walked through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

Long story short: The musician played continuously for an hour. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 people gave money to the musician while they continued to walk through the station at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

I have edited this for brevity, but the point is – how many times do we miss something that would have added to our lives, simply because we are too rushed, too much in a hurry to get to the next thing. Wow, to have been here, to have been able to listen to this wonderful music.

Makes me think – what have I missed because I was hurrying along – not just at the metro station, but as I am hurrying through that project, only half listening as my daughter is recounting her day, even hurrying my dog as she does her business at the park –

Just my voice

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