GO! Smell the flowers is a vibrant online community which aims to brighten up your time online, make you think, explore, question and hopefully laugh in equal measure.

Everybody is welcome here and we urge you all to get amongst the discussions here by posting comments and having your say. Feel free to share your wealth, learn, listen and provoke debate of your own with a founding base of global contributors from a diversity of creeds, cultures and experiences we believe we have something for everyone.

Our aim is to help people grow as we, as an online community grow. What started as a kernel of an idea 2 years ago is now a thriving hotbed of opinion, discussion and debate. The GO! Smell the flowers ethos is that life is too short- so seize the day and jump in.

Knowledge is considered power and we believe that sharing of knowledge is central to the development of the individual.

More and more people are taking the time out to smell their flowers. It could be 5 minutes out of a busy day, a career break, holiday with the family, a new lease of life after an illness or job loss - whatever it means to YOU!

Why wait until you’re dead and pushing up flowers from the grave?

You can send someone flowers today - why wait for the funeral?

As partners of Flora 2000 the international delivery experts we are delighted to offer an online flower service to all our readers! Feel free to GO! send flowers today and for a few $$ discount just use code GSTF00!

Look out for the regular free flowers caption and picture contests at the blog - we’ve enjoyed giving away over $2500 of flowers since late 2006 including ONE YEAR of free flowers in 2007.

We’ll be holding our FREE FLOWERS FOR 2008 in October where someone, somewhere will win free flowers for one year.

Meet the founders of GO! Smell the flowers

Enjoy this video compilation featuring the original founders courtesy of creative genius, author of literary online magazine The view from here and flower smeller Mike French:

Our founders came into being as we scoured cyberspace and connected with writers in the U.S, Canada, India, England, Wales, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Australia finally launching Blog idol as flower founder Mike French flexed his creative muscles again to find the final 3:

Our existing founders who make it happen:

Freedom of Speech at GO! Smell the flowers

What is the flower without the thorn?

A debate without an opinion?

It’s not all roses in the garden as we our philosophy is to allow open  with a self governing form of moderation - through everyone at the community. This comes at a price as points of view have been taken personally,  debates have become passionate, misunderstandings followed and we’ve learned together. What is life with a blank emotionless face after all?

We’ve enjoyed and endured some rather ‘thorny’ issues being discussed encouraging users to dig deeper, to share their experiences and to learn form others. Personal insults and pointless stone throwing is of course discouraged but has happended from time to time as it does in life.

How do I get involved?

There are several ways:

• Read the posts, enjoy them and follow the comments that people post.
• Post a comment here & subscribe to comments to ensure dialogue and follow up to your contribution.
• Get involved over at the FORUM section - this has already become the place to run through any technical issues, a place for you to promote hat you do on line and is open to all.
• Tell your friends about the site - just send them the link.
• Send someone flowers today - Dig deep and make someones day.
• Enter our free flowers contests every 3 weeks - Over $2500 of free flowers have been won here since late 2006.
• Join our facebook group - GO! Smell the flowers.
• Coming soon - Build your profile & add your avatar, share information, dreams, hopes and aspirations. We’re working on a Wiki feature that will give plenty of opportunities get connecting as we GO! full steam ahead with a user generated community!
• We like to feature and promote other websites, flower smellers and like minded businesses so do contact us if you wish to be featured at GO! Smell the flowers or be considered as a guest writer.

Every post on this blog is open to your comments! It doesn’t matter if you have never been here before, or if you are a “regular,” all points of view are welcome.

SUBSCRIBE TO POSTS so you can be updated on any topics that are of interest to you!

Writing from the heart is a great place to start and you’ll find examples of that are blog posts, in comments and over at forums.

Maybe a change in YOUR life is due? It could be a career break, drinking and eating less, starting a new hobby, spending more time with the kids, saying ‘no’ more or discovering the merits of a group hug. GO! Smell the flowers is not just a cue to head off around the world but making changes for the better to hep you people realise their dreams. What about having the courage to write that book you’ve always wanted to?

The Flower Smellers

Are you already smelling your flowers? Then great - become an honourary flower smeller! Just get invovled here and in good time you may be nominated by a founder as a flower smeller!

Maybe you know other ‘flower smellers’ - Let’s hear about them! Welcomed from all walks of life from Zen Masters to Master bakers (careful how you say that one) from the East, West, North or erm, well, the South. From weight loss to weight gain, busy Mums to stressed out execs and people bold enough to follow thier passion and live their dream - we’d love to connect with you as your story could inspire countless others around the world.

Here’s a few Flower Smellers we prepared earlier! Maybe you could join them?

Happy reading, thinking and we encourage all visitors to post comments and have YOUR say.

How it all started - The roots of GO! Smell the flowers

When Jim and Emma resigned from corporate marketing to see the places they’d always wanted to see they took a gamble, a journey into the unknown and time out to ask what it’s all about.

At Jim’s farewell lunch his boss said:

“We’d all love to get out of the rat race - We wish you look on your travels. Enjoy it when you smell the flowers”

At the time these words didn’t mean much to Jim who had previously bitten the heads of flowers rather than smelling them but as time moved on and countries were visited the phrase stayed with the couple as they joked about smelling the flowers. They ’smelt the flowers’, both kept ‘his n her’ journal along the way and are on track to publish their adventures in a truly unique way in 2008 and beyond!

Having scaled their corporate ladders we felt something was missing. They needed to put their lives into perspective.  Meeting each other was only the start of something special and sharing their dreams and for the first time in their lives actually wrote them down. They talked about places we wanted to visit and things they wanted to do. Asking what they wanted out of life, they scribbled down lists and let our imaginations run wild. What was stopping them?

There was only one way to find out so they left their jobs, took career breaks and travelled to some of the places they hoped to see ‘one day’.

OK, it was a risk, firstly to give up the security that we’d worked so hard to capture and secondly to head off and spend 24 hours a day with each other!

It was well worth it. Travelling rewarded them with far more than they gave up: they indulged in quality time, got to know each other and gave themselves time to think. They made choices about how they wanted to live their lives with the knowledge and experience they’d acquired.

Bottom line - There are plenty of flowers to smell wherever you are.

Jim & Em planning to publish their book that digs deeper revealing the ups & downs of their journey, GO! Smell the flowers in 2009

GO! Smell the flowers on Dubai TV

It doesn’t matter what your current lifestyle is – if you think something is ‘missing’ and you still feel unfulfilled then rather than spend the rest of your life saying ‘if only …’ It’s easier said than done, life GO!’s on and with pressures of work, rest and play it’s the journey that’s the important bit - not the finish line.

The GO! Smell the flowers tag line ‘ One journey - many discoveries’ is something they’re striving for not only here on line but also in life!

So welcome to the community, get involved & have your say at the start of an online community with a difference.

SO, GO! Smell the flowers - while you still can!

USER WARNING

Do watch out for the thorns though, it’s not all roses here so be prepared for occasional bouts of sarcasm, humour and cutting remarks but hey, that’s what makes it interesting  - that’s life!