Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Let me tell you something big: Give importance to little things! Mehmet Murat Ildan

Fitting everything we need to do isn’t always easy, but sometimes I ask myself, what am I so busy doing? Life seems to expand what we have to do to fit the time we have to do it in, regardless of how much we accomplish. How do people who accomplish so much do it? How much of my time is spent smelling the roses, having coffee and a chat, and how much of my day is actually productive?

What makes a productive day? Doing things that can wait until tomorrow or making connections with people that can only happen today? We celebrated a friend’s birthday on Saturday, met some interesting people, and talked to a retired couple who’ve created a great retirement life. On Facebook, I see posts and pictures of people traveling to faraway places, not only retired couples but young people just starting.

Listening to an author the other day, he said he realized he doesn’t love travelling, what he loves is the freedom from work that he feels when he’s on vacation. He was on vacation, playing with one of his kids, having the best day, when he realized he could play with his kids when he wasn’t on vacation, and it would be just as much fun. The vacation gave him the freedom to do it; he just had to build that kind of freedom into his daily life.

When we look at the things in life we get the most enjoyment from, it often isn’t the outside things like what building we are looking at we’ve never seen before, it is who we are with, the sense of adventure of doing something together, and often we can have adventures close to or far from home. Are we saving the enjoyment of things for vacation and holidays when some of that enjoyment we could have any day we choose?

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. Marian Wright Edelman

What are we not enjoying about where we live that are open to us? Many things cost a lot of money we might wish we could do, but what about the many simple things that are free or close to free, we might enjoy? The more we enjoy the simple things in life, the better our lives will be. Is an expensive dinner out that much more enjoyable than finding a little café for coffee, tea, and a pastry, cake, or other delectable concoction? Would we enjoy it more if it were in Paris than somewhere local we’ve never been?

We might think creating an adventurous life is something that happens over there, far from where we live, but what if all we need to do is change the way we look at things to bring more adventure and joy into our lives?

Life is about choices and dealing with the hand we are dealt. We might look at other people’s lives and think, they’ve got a really great life, but everyone has their own challenges and problems. We don’t know the struggles someone else is going through, and they often don’t know ours. If we knew everything about someone else’s life, would we still think it is better than our own? When we see people whose lives we think are worth emulating, how can we bring some of that into our own lives?

What would we still like to do in life, where would we like to go, and what adventures do we want to have, close or far from home? If we could live anywhere, where would we choose, and what would make it better than where we live now? Are we getting as much joy out of each day as we can? Are we having coffee and conversations with people while they are with us, and taking our grandchildren to the park? One day, we might have time to take our grandchildren to the park, but they will be the ones no longer wanting to go with us, because they have more fun things to do.

If we have time for them when they are young, perhaps they will have time for us when we are old.

Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things. Kurt Vonnegut

The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things… trivial pleasure like cooking, one’s home, little poems, especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard. Barbara Pym

Find magic in the little things, and the big things you always expected will start to show up. Isa Zapata

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