COUNTRY ROADS — Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with the sentiment behind the quote: "It's not the destination, but the journey that matters."
The quote has resonated with people for more than a century, but its appeal might be even broader than previously thought, thanks to a video of a mother brown bear gently walking across the guardrail on the side of a North Carolina road.
Rather than simply trudging alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway, scrounging for berries with her two cubs, the bear is making the most of her journey. Her cubs can only look on in awe as they struggle to keep up.
Carrie Sharma, who took the video, said she drives her husband to work in Asheville five days a week.
"We often see brown bears and their cubs, but this was a special moment seeing Momma Bear on the beam," she wrote in the video caption. "They are so fun, gentle and cohabitate with us humans so easily here."
Life can get busy, but if anything can be taken from the bear's example, it's to never forget to stop and smell the roses.
But — unlike the omnivorous mother and her cubs — maybe don't eat them.
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