February 5

  

Today's Quotation:

Half the joy of life is in the little things taken on the run.
Let us run if we must--even the sands do that--
but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open
that nothing worth our while shall escape us.

Victor Cherbuliez

Today's Meditation:

The little things can be so cool--they're the things that make life worthwhile every single day.  The big things can be fun, but they also can be very stressful.  The little things are rarely stressful and often highly gratifying, especially if we can go around "gathering" them as time goes on.  If we do so, our memories will be full of wonderful and awesome things, and the way we see today will be strongly influenced by the brightness that's there in our memory.

There's a tree in a small Spanish town in the mountains, just on the Spanish side of the border with France.  It's not a particularly special tree, but years ago someone put up a barbed-wire fence next to it, and all the time since, this tree has been growing around the barbed wire.  The wire now enters one side of the tree and comes out the other side.  The tree lives on in my memory as one of those cool little things that make life so much more interesting, as long as we make sure we see them.

A couple of weeks ago as we were walking past a newly-frozen pond, I skipped some rocks out on it, and the sound they made was something straight out of a science-fiction movie.  If I keep my eyes open, I see bugs and snakes and intricate tiny flowers and cool rocks and nice smiles and beautiful architecture and gentle kindness.  If I keep my heart young I notice great places to play, nice sunsets, cool hideouts, neat ice formations, and strange and unusual birds and animals.

Life is never ordinary.  We can make it seem ordinary by closing our eyes and hearts to its wonder, but that's not life's fault.  I prefer to notice the little things and then leave them be--never trying to take them with me or preserve them--because that's what life's supposed to be, and that's what makes me happy and keeps away disappointment.

Questions to ponder:

1.  How important are the "little things" to you?
Do you think they'd be more important if you noticed them more?

2.  What does it mean to keep our hearts young?
How can we do so?

3.  Are you ever so busy or so rushed that you don't notice anything as you go by?  What do you think you may be losing when that happens?
For further thought:

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face into the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

Mary Jean Iron
   
 
  

 




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