Sometimes, you have to stop and smell the roses, or in this case, listen to the saxophone player.

It had been a very long week of travel and meetings and a hotel room by the elevator and emails and voice mails and phone calls and very little water pressure, but enough other pressure and worrying about other things….. and it was only Tuesday.

Life is like that sometimes, too much to do and not enough time. We all face it, but sometimes, you have to make time to just stop, to take in something good.
I had a few hours to kill in ATL airport, so I had a nice dinner and was walking back to find out if I had a plane yet.

In the middle of one of the concourses, a gentlemen was playing his saxophone.
I’ve seen this in other airport:;gift shops or restaurants or the city hires musicians to play music for travelers, like street performers. It’s a very nice touch, that I usually have to run right past.

But right now, like I said, I had time to kill, so I stopped and leaned against a wall and listened. And watched.
He was very good, played improvised jazz, not my favorite, but I enjoy watching anyone who is very good at something do that something. He had a hat on his case, and a few people dropped in dollars.

Kids were the most fun to watch, as mom or dad would give them a buck and they would skip or run over and drop it in his hat with a big smile. He’d lean toward them and say thank you and then blast a couple fun notes their way. They would giggle and run back to mom. Some business men dropped in cash, some said “sounds great” or something like that, he would smile and nod.

A couple young airport employees dropped in money on their way to their shift. They gave him a wave and he waved back like he might have known them.
Even people in a hurry who didn’t have time to stop, smiled and nodded at him approvingly, that seemed to be enough for him. He seemed to really be enjoying playing for people.
I stood there for 15 minutes I guess, didn’t notice the lady from the gift shop come out and stand next to me. She smiled at me and nodded her head.

It was such a nice scene, all types of people from all over the world, rich people, not rich people, all colors, shapes and sizes, all enjoying music, even if just for a moment as they rushed by. Made me smile to think about it.
I took a couple bucks out of my pocket and walked toward the man playing. He stopped for a moment as I walked up. I told him thank you, he smiled and said thank you back.

I walked to my gate listening to his music fade as I got farther away. At the gate, there were lots of people and no nice music and not as many smiles. The board no longer said Rochester, hmmm, that’s interesting. Checked my phone, there had been a gate change, and now I had to hustle to the other end of the airport. I walked, quickly this time, back toward the music, he was still playing happily and people were listening. I still smiled, but walked past with just a nod.

After a train and a people mover and a few escalators, I made it to a gate with a sign that said home, and I took a seat. The plane arrived and people rushed off and were frantically looking for where they had to go before they hurried to the next flight.

I wondered if they would go past the man playing, and if they would have time to listen. If they could make it to their gates, would they make the time to listen to some nice music, and watch people enjoy it.

For them, I hoped so.
Sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses, or in this case, listen to the saxophone.