Small Things
Looking back on my life, which I often do at my age, I am frustrated that it took me so long to realize it’s not the things most of us spend most of our lives chasing; it’s the small things.
A hug from a grandfather and the smell of his Old Spice, after hitting a little league home run. Waking up to the smell of my grandmother’s apple pie, made with Granny Smith apples and love, baking in the oven. A three-year-old child running down the driveway as soon as she sees Daddy coming home from work.
The smell of the air after a strong summer thunderstorm. The first insignificant flake of snow that marks the end of a season and the beginning of another.
The sound of a lonely train whistle disappearing into the summer night. The first green sprouts of the crocuses and the snowdrops and the daffodils, who so beautifully play the sentries of spring and of the warmer days yet to come.
It’s the small things.
The sounds of the forest, sometimes so difficult to hear, especially when we haven’t learned to take time to listen.
The eyes of a child beaming after his very first word; a puppy’s first trick – a handshake. A daddy-daughter dance and her first dress, almost as beautiful as her smile.
A mother’s tiny, almost-hidden tear as she watches her little boy climb onto the yellow school bus on his first day of school.
The forest, full of winter skeletons, brittle and bleak, slowly and magically explodes into a lush green kingdom of springtime life.
A cat in a window, watching the wind whipping past the yard, swirling last autumn’s dry brown leaves around, and around on a warm and breezy early spring day.
It’s the small things.
The older I become, the more time I have to reflect on the small things I almost missed because my life was too busy to notice.
Now, time is all I have. And though I don’t know how much time I have left, I do know that, however much time I have left, it will be full of memories from the times when I was almost, but not quite, too busy to notice the small things.
Wow, TC. Your last few essays have been so different from your previous ones. I like all of them but the last few are so poignant and touching. Thanks!
This was beautiful and so true. Thank you for reminding us to take the time to remember those “little things”. In this crazy world, we all need more time away thinking about what is really important.
Bravo! Reinforces the saying, “Youth is wasted on the young”.
Thank you!!!