Stop and Smell the (Cliched) Proverbial Roses

Posted by Mike Richard on October 10, 2006
Filed under: Pre-Trip, Quotable, Sidelines

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Among the many ways that I envision our RTW trip making a difference in my perspective on life, I hope to gain more of an appreciation for the little things. To stop and smell those proverbial, and quite cliched roses. Thanks in part to my full time work as a web designer, I spend more time e-mailing/IM’ing/blogging/Myspacing than I do conversing, experiencing, and appreciating the real world. The hustle of an always-on, constantly-connected life has left me … well disconnected.

From 1000wines.org:

On Saturday I spent a few minutes with my nephew Luke playing in the leaves. He was born last year, so this year marks the first autumn in his life that he’s actually aware of. Luke literally embodies the endless fascination with the world that most people lose by the time they become adults. I mean, here is a person who gets extremely excited the taste and texture of every meal, a person who doesn’t think you’re crazy or stupid for pointing out the vivid reds and oranges of an October maple leaf. Children and babies are natural appreciators, and I wonder if that springs mainly from their reluctance or inability to make judgments- they have not yet been taught what things are culturally/age/gender appropriate to admit to enjoy.

People ask how and why I can leave my well-paying job, a gorgeous apartment, an American Dream lifestyle.

To get out and see the world as Luke sees the world. That’s how.

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Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.



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