I like to think of myself as being a fairly attentive and observant person. I make a conscious effort to look for and take time to appreciate the beauty of this world. Even so, I often find myself either too distracted or too focused to notice the things that are right under my nose.

One morning this week, I decided to stop at a local restaurant to get something to drink. As I sat in a line at the drive-thru that seemed to barely move, I spent my time complaining and growing more frustrated by the minute. My thoughts bounced around between work, traffic, the weather and a dozen other things and I passed the time mindlessly staring at the screen on my phone.

Just as I was about to start another round of complaining to myself, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to look, I saw a huge, flowering bush just outside my window. The bush was covered with magnificent, fragrant blooms. The bush was so close to my open window that when I turned to look the flowers were literally in my face.

I was able to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of the flowers for only a few brief seconds before the line moved forward and summoned me to move also. As I pulled slowly ahead, I regretted that I hadn’t noticed the bush and it’s flowers sooner. I was disappointed that I had wasted the minutes I spent stopped there being annoyed instead of edified.

As I drove away, I wondered how many other things I had missed. How many things have I been oblivious to because I was too preoccupied with something either not present or not important?

I made a renewed commitment that day to try even harder to live in the here and now and enjoy the beauty that can be found everywhere even right under my nose.