Bayou Kidz | Smell the Roses
article by Cindy G. Foust

Well, hello BayouLife friends, Romans and Countrymen…and Happy New Year to you and your families. I’ll start with a prayer of thanksgiving for seeing yet another year, my 12th as a feature writer with this great magazine. But, hey, who’s counting? I rarely mention the fact that this is my 145th column for Bayou Life, and what a joy it has been to show up each and every month on the pages of this column. We have lived a lot of life together, friends, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have free therapy here every month. I don’t know about you, but my journaling prowess is rather hit-and-miss, so for me, getting to write a feature article every month is kind of equivalent to writing in a journal; since I usually share what’s been going on in my life on a month-to-month basis. So, who needs a journal? I’ll just wait and write about my crisis or Lucy and Ethel moments next month! And for the record, this month is no different.
You might be thinking that you need to buckle in (yet again), but that’s not the case this month readers. You see, I have lived through yet another harrowing and tragic loss with some very dear friends of mine. I know what you are thinking right about now, that I have written and continue to write about debilitating things in her life. And you would be right. It seems that we have seen our share of tragedy in this community this year. It’s been paralyzing at times and quite frankly, I am over the “bad news.” Agree?
In thinking over the last 12+ months, it sent me back to the first of 2024, when we seemingly make the effort to put our lives in a tidy box. We want to lose more weight; make more money; clean out all of our sock drawers; exercise four hours a day; drink more water. Y’all with me? I get the whole resolution, vision board, goal setting exercises, I actually do some of it myself. But at the end of the day, what is it that we should be trying to accomplish? Hear me clear, not “what do we want to accomplish?” but rather, “what should we want to accomplish?” The difference in those two sentences is one word: should.
I have a couple of really good friends, including my sister, and we send each other reels and memes all the time. Literally at two in the morning, we are sending what will most of the time be, hilarious reels about work, our husbands, diets, just whatever scrolls through our social media feeds. But every now and then, one that is a little more serious will creep into my feed, like it really doesn’t belong there, or is scared to show up, but at the same time, knows I need to see the message. Last week, when I started thinking about what this month’s column (of 12 years, Happy Anniversary to Cindy) would be about, in the middle of my angst for my dear friends, I saw one that stopped me in my tracks…so buckle in.
“The real luxuries in life: Time. Health. A quiet mind. Slow mornings. Ability to travel. Rest without guilt. A good night’s sleep. Calm and ‘boring’ days. Meaningful conversations. Home-cooked meals. People you love. People who love you back.”
Stop.The.Mus-ack.
I know, I know, you’ve heard me say countless times over the last 145 columns that we “all” need to stop and smell the roses. We need to make family time intentional. We need to slow down and soak in the memories. But does anyone ever really do that? I know I don’t, but something in my life is shifting. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s gas (I had to throw that in to see who’s still reading and haven’t dozed off). Maybe it’s just my station in life, where home-cooked meals with people you love are a gift. The truth is, the life we have is a gift. There is nothing more precious, no amount of money in our accounts, no big fancy house, no car that runs on electricity instead of gas…nothing. I sat in the funeral of our close friend’s son this week, and watched as his father bravely and courageously delivered remarks that brought us to our knees. On the ride home with my husband, we sat in silence for most the way, and tears, and reflected on the anguish that we went through after the loss of our own precious son. What I wouldn’t give to be able to transport back to the year 2000, when Samuel was gifted to us, and know what I know now…even knowing I would only have him for 2 years, but be able to live, ever so present, in each of the moments we had with him. I am trying to write this readers, without melodrama or angst (thanks to my boss, my word of choice of late), but it’s really hard not to when you dredge up memories that you work real hard to suppress. And then you watch people you love have to walk a similar path and after the fog clears a bit, you begin to see things again with a little more clarity. That lens, the one we look through every day, gets more clear and more defined as I get older. What I am finding to be the most important is the simple joys in every day. Good health is a gift. My granddaughter’s laugh is gold. When she grins at me and starts kicking her legs and reaching her arms for me, I find myself noting that there is no price tag on that. Invaluable, really.
So here I am, at the end of my 145th column, and I’m still standing on the principle of family first. The cliché is we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow and many of us have experienced that in our own families. Boy, do we ever know that to be true. But at the same time, with that mindset, it should serve as the catalyst for keeping our “lens” clear and keeping our families focused on what really matters in this life. Quiet mornings, a good cup of coffee, resting, taking that trip…these are “just a few of my favorite things.” My hope for you, dear friends, is that you will look 2025 in the eyes and take it on, with that same resolute as last year, but with the promise to keep focused on the things in life that create the most meaningful moments and the joy that we all seek to have.
Cindy G. Foust is a wife, mom, author and blogger. You can find her blog at the alphabetmom.com for weekly columns about home life, parenting, small business stories and insight with a smidgen of literacy. Give her a like or follow on Facebook and Instagram.