Stop to smell the roses

In class last week we had the phrase 'See the bigger picture'. It reminded me of one of my favourite sayings, 'Stop to smell the roses'.

Everyone should take time to 'stop and smell the roses'

Both have a similar meaning. Slow down for a minute, take a look at your life, ignore your problems for a while and see the positive things in your life.
This is something that we all need to do every now and again. Especially at the end of the year.
In Japan there are many "End of year parties" (in Japanese 'forget the year' party) which I always thought was a strange, however forward thinking, idea. Why would anyone want to forget the year that they had just lived?
Every year on New Year's Eve I sit alone for a few minutes and think about everything that had happened that year, and how I will learn from the mistakes I had made, to make the next year a little better, and just to take a minute to 'stop and smell the roses'.

2012 has been a great year for me...here's to 2013!! (if the world doesn't end on December 21st ;)