The Small Stuff

I read a beautiful blog post today that changed my outlook  .  The last few weeks have been challenging and it is so easy to forget what beauty is made out of and how it fades to invisibility while we are down.  So as Robert Crampton says:  The small stuff, that you think is the small stuff,  and then you get older and realise that the small stuff is what actually matters.

I hope I don't have to get old to realise that.  I would like to realise it now.

I like waking up to my blinds illuminated by brilliant morning sunshine and then hoisting them open to reveal snow capped hills rolling with patchwork farms at their feet.  I like hugs and feeling someone else's heartbeat. I like being outside under a tree in fresh air and breathing there.  I like the grass under my bare feet when the dew is still evaporating.

I like looking out of a bus or plane window and marvelling at transport and how we humans are capable of miracles.  I like someone patting my back gently while I am crying.  I like it when people play guitar from their heart and let the strings reverberate in tune with their soul.

I like gatherings.  When people of all streets of life begin to walk together or listen to music together or do yoga together or watch a movie together.  I like spontaneous conversations.  I like realizing you have so much in common with a stranger.  I like talking and sharing and reading poetry aloud.  Support groups, snail mail, phone calls, and love.  That's all I need to keep going after a hard day.

And there is the still tranquillity of solitude.  I like being alone sometimes.  Listening to life and being inside my body.  I like living simply.  I like it when I manage to focus on thing at a time, a practise that proves so very difficult when I fly and whiz through life like a jet through the clouds.

The ocean has always rocked me to sleep.  I could stay for hours at a beach, feeling the reassuring tide against my toes.  Flowers and leaves and small notes that say please.  All of that is golden.  I love driving with my mom and listening to my dad's stories, I like hearing my brother open up and absorbing wisdom from my grandparents.  I like cooking with my friends and baking as therapy.  I like it when people come through for other people.  I like old fashioned warmth.

Fireplaces delight me.  So does the smell of new wood.  I love the tall trees at Pearson College and I will never forget the cleansing submerge of Bay Jumping.  I love it when people sit on a bed and talk from their hearts and create something wonderful. I like it when hard work pays off. I like it when I've had a busy day, but when it's done I know at least I accomplished something.

I like snaking up high in the skytrain and zooming by in the fleeting presence of human spirits devoid of pasts and futures. I like the mysterious romances that happen on the skytrain when you glance at each other secretly and it seems like attraction is a magnetic glance and you're entranced without speaking a word.  I love flowy soft clothes and gasps and sighs and when you know someone is overtaken by surprise.

I like story-telling.  I like whales.  I like butterflies in Spring.   I like feeling free and liberated and perfectly content with what is.  I guess I like remembering what makes life joyous and I like searching for the small stuff that makes your heart bigger.

May you appreciate the joy and love that surrounds you, and may you have the courage to look for it.