Stop to think..
 

Girls, kittens, sunsets, voices, anime... just some of the things I can find so much beauty in, there is so much more. Sometimes I see it, or hear it, and I want to own it.. somehow. I want to have it so I can experience it for myself, by myself, any time I want. I want it to be mine and mine alone.

Then I realize that I can't have it for myself... and I cant take it home... and there's probably nothing else like it that I can substitute for it.

That's when I simply smile. I don't want to feel jealousy for those who do have these things on demand. I need to just breathe and enjoy it. There it is, folks, beauty.

It can heal your heart and it can destroy it.

..

It's those moments that make me feel happy & sad at the same time.

I just tilt my head, smirk, and breathe deep.
I take a chance to stop.

And use the time for what it is.

Happy and sad at the same time.. When I stare into the sunset over the river by my house I get those feelings. I think of all the things good in my life and the things that I've lost in life.. and how short life really is. Really does make you think.

Everyonce in a while I find something that makes me stop and think. It always happens at the wrong time. Like say, in front of a moving bus.

Needless to say I tend to ignore everything now in hopes of not getting hit by a bus.

Stop to think. Something I guess I never did until I was in a bad accident a few years ago. I got messed up pretty bad but I didn't die. Came close but I didn't die. After the accident I didn't tell myself to pay attention to everyday things that I usually took for granted, somehow it just happened. I don't think I've ever told anyone about the " change" that I had in my way of looking at things but I'm glad it happened. I'm glad I stop to think now. I could ramble on but I won't. I just saw the thread and it made me stop and think.
"Live each day like it's going to be your last because one day your sure to be right"

Lovely quote from an awesome film.

*Wistful* would be the emotion that I attach to the moments you've described.

As I get older, and the time seems to pass more quickly, those moments occur more often.

Double D said it......as I am getting older and the time seems to pass quicker, I often find myself looking for more of the quality of life instances as opposed to "just" going through life. Yes, I stop and smell the roses now, when I go to the mountains, I take more time to breath in the clean air, take more time to expose my eyes to the beauty around me. And, I take more time to reflect on my family and my love for them. These things calm me and make me happy.

this too shall pass.

i remember being a very troubled person some 6 years ago and being kind of pessimistic, but sitting on a bridge in the middle of the nature at night, just listening to the sounds of the river, the frogs, the crickets looking up at the stars suddenly i got this feeling that everything would be alright for me.
and guess what : it did, my only problem was my stressed out attidute that prevented me to enjoy the art of living. and that night I realised it. since then i can see the beauty around me Inever noticed before.

Re: Stop to think..
 

yeah, i'm learning to just appreciate it when i DO get a taste.......none of it is guaranteed.

"Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it." Ferris Bueller

I try not to take my life for granted. At least a couple of times a week or more I look around and give thanks that I have such a comfortable life and a good standard of living. Sure, I complain about the idiot drivers on the road and other things, but they are nothing compared to what others on this planet are going through right now. To live in fear every day would be a terrible thing.
My goal is now to slow down and look around at my world. I drive from one place to another always focused on the traffic ahead and don't look around at all the amazing things there are to see. Even if it's just some old warehouse I just went by, it still has a story to tell if I'd listen to what it has to say.

Great responses, everybody.

that is beautiful.
i love just looking up at the stars and breathing in the fresh air, feeling the gentle breeze. or watching the sunset go down and the sky turn a hazy purple while i write in my notebook journal. i appreciate everything in these moments and all my stress lifts away..... i think i need one of these moments soon. heh.

Parts of the world are beautiful, true--but sometimes I wonder. I wonder about all the shit that goes on everyday, the things people do to each other... It hurts so much sometimes, seeing and thinking about the things that go on in this world, sometimes I wonder whether that theory presented in the virus thread is right, and humanity is really a plague on the planet. How much of the true beauty that you see is created by man? We admire large constructions created by our own hands, like the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Empire State Building. But compare those to the Grand Canyon, or a beautiful sunset, and they can't even hold a candle to these natural wonders. And often our actions speed the destruction of many of these things we find so beautiful. Sometimes, I just don't know.

Quietus: That was *exactly* the quote I was thinking of as I read this.

I appreciate beauty so much. I do. But to use the words of a great band: "Everyday, I feel anonymous hate." There are times when I am so full of hatred for life and those who hold onto it like babes to their mother, I feel it should be ended. It seems like, no matter how beautiful this world may or may not be, it's just not worth seeing anymore. Every flower is different, but at the same time, every flower is the same. They're flowers. Force me to see why we continue on, day after day, trudging through lives that, for the most part, we don't want to be in. It seems like everyone is just waiting to die. It seems like all the good in the world is done simply to make that waiting period between birth and death a little more comfortable, while we wait for kingdom come. And I think that's shit. I do. Why bother waiting? I'm not saying I or anyone else should kill themselves, but why be put here in the first place if all the vast majority of us do is just sit around and wait until we get taken back to whereever we started from? It's infuriating.

Every morning when I shower right outside my window on the roof next door there are a couple of birds that hang out on this pole. I sometimes just stand there and watch them singing....actually kinda calming.

Sometimes I think it's my little brother Johnny who past away a few years back keeping an eye on me:)