by Dan Williams

Created on: January 10, 2010

She turned and smiled, eyes glistening, scanning my face, her appreciation of me was grasped at the moment. Wow! she appreciated me? A little thing, a glance, a smile so often is taken for granted. How do individuals who lose their sense appreciate life, and move through the daily grind with happiness. Those that have lost their job, their retirement, or the loss of a loved one and continue to find happiness. Shame on us for those that drive the Lexus or Mercedes with the religious fish attached to the rear, as the that qualifies us for recognition of our faith.

Appreciating the little things many times occurs with the loss of the big things. Of course it does not need to be that way. We can appreciate the little things by understanding the importance of our lives, and superficiality of materialistic wants. H.D. Thoreau had the market cornered on happiness and had what? Minimal necessities paper and a writing implement and an astute ability to view nature. Nature the one constant truth, that does not lie and continues to give back free of charge. 

Love of a child, love of a relationship can teach one to appreciate the little things. If one can get past their own issues from previous skeletons, previous pain, and look at what they have in front of them the little things become huge. It is one thing to say we appreciate the sunset, the rain, the falling stars, the crackling fire but to live it, actually live and be happy is quite another. 

As with any life change, it takes work. One does not read, "Walden" by Thoreau and wake up and become a naturalist and throw away their Ipod and cellphone. There needs to be reflection, desire and passion to change to move forward with understanding that little things are what brought us here. It is what brought us together. The small kiss, the penny that was saved and gained interest, the look of awe at one snowflake on a black mitten, and the caress of a hand by aloved one knowing the other is in pain.

Please, look around at a stop light, at your home, at a falling leaf, a raindrop racing down a window pane. The karmic thread of your experience with nature at any given moment can be insurmountable if you allow it to be. It takes effort, for we have become robotrons of western society. Turn off the television, pop some popcorn sit in front of a fire,( no fire) light some candles, and share the stories with your children.

I smiled back at her, the mutual recognition was magnetic. There was an electricity just knowing each others feelings were mutual without a spoken word. It does not become any simpler than that. Time allows the simple to become massive. It takes effort, passion and a want to change. Grab one rock on your next trip out, bring it home imagine it as a reminder of your journey, bring home another, the simple rock after rock will become a pile of memories. Who knows you just might build a mountain.

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