stop and smell the roses

Whew, I won’t lie; keeping this blog regular is proving challenging lately. I am LOVING working with alltheprettybirds.com right now, and I’ve also taken on more photographic work, which I’m so thankful for. In the spirit of this gratitude, I thought it would make perfect sense to write down exactly what I’ve been experiencing lately.

Milan, May 2019

The reason I named this blog stop and smell the roses, was because of a comment a new colleague of mine made. I met Grace on a trip to Milan last week; she’s Associate Editor at alltheprettybirds.com and during an editorial meeting we were all sharing things that we’d enjoyed earlier that day, as a kind of ice-breaker. Grace mentioned that every time she arrives at Tamu (founder of ATPB)’s office, she always stops to smell the beautiful roses that bloom outside. It got me thinking about how it’s so easy to be so fast, fast, now, now all the time. Always being switched ‘on’ means you often don’t notice things. It can mean you spend most of your day looking down, whether that’s at your Instagram interactions, your laptop, in a book, or while you walk, because you’re lost in your own thoughts - or just don’t want to talk to anyone! All of the above isn’t necessarily a problem, but I do think it’s beneficial to take a moment to breathe and just appreciate what’s around you.

While in Milan I managed to slot in a photo shoot with Mitchel Tanyaradzwa, AKA @mitchumtanya, founder of Instagram community @zimqueensnotsorry. On the shoot we talked and laughed, and a few times I told Mitchel to look up for something to focus on. So many times we miss out on what’s right in front of us, purely because we’re looking down or kind of zoning out. When you look up you might see a beautiful tree, or face, or simply see the clouds moving across the sky; taking those few seconds to appreciate what you see almost always has a calming effect on how you feel.

Taking that concept further, I realised that I really should appreciate all the things I’ve discovered over these past few weeks; during my trip to Milan, Tamu welcomed me into her home for an intimate (and amazing!) dinner; Grace and her partner Stefano took me for the most delicious gelato ever, and prior to that I had my first go at sending out a photo shoot to various media sites. The response was so positive, it’s got me a meeting with someone I’m very excited about, and has also given me the confidence to keep going. I’m also appreciating Daniel and I having our own space for three months now - that never gets old!

So tell me, what are you appreciative of today?