When I slow down long enough to smell the roses,

And assuredly, we will not pass this way again.

It has been said the greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention; additionally, living life fully attentive to the breezes, the colors, the sorrows and the thrills as well, is the most prayerful response any of us can make in this life.

Nothing more is asked of us. Nothing less is expected.

We have just this one life to live, and each day is a blessing. Even the trials we shall understand as blessings in the months, the years ahead, as we can see now how the painful moments of the past played their part.

Our attitude toward the lessons life has offered makes all the difference in the world. 

One morning he told everyone about his dream the night before.

He was lined up in the dining room with an entire football team, and they all ran in a line through the house, pushing the clutter and dirt up against the walls and out of the way. They came to a finish at the picture window, where the father turned and raised his arms in victory.

Then he saw his wife watching him, so he explained, "Heroes don't vacuum." 

Perhaps each of us is a hero at one time or another.

In that case, we might take turns at different chores, rewarding the day's hero with a day off from vacuuming or dish washing.

When we work together to get the chores done, we become a family of heroes, and can feel a healthy pride in our warm, loving, and clean home.

Challenges are to be expected. They further our purpose. They foster our maturity.

How different it is, for many of us, to look forward today with secure anticipation, to trust in what the future holds!

We can still remember, all too vividly perhaps, the darker periods in our lives, periods that seemed to hold no promise; a time when we dreaded the future, fearing it would only compound those awful times.

The fear and the dread are not gone completely. They hover about us, on occasion. They no longer need to darken all of a day, however.

We can recognize their presence as parts of our whole, not all of it. How free we are, today!

Our choices are many.