The Small Things are the Best Things

Hello dear! When you visit our home in January, you’ll find our family surrounding the fireplace with two pairs of socks on each footsie, narrowly avoiding the cold that creeps in from our bare hardwood floors. Our books are gently worn next to mugs full of drippy hot cocoa, while we find ourselves reminiscing of the holidays that have come and gone: such happy memories that we have to keep us warm through the long winter days.

I find this time of year to be woven with the flax of deep rest and as I grow older I’m learning to appreciate the unique things that each season brings with it for us: how spring is a time of learning and nourishing; winter blows us into a state of pause and we, like ivy, cling to opportunities for deep rest. However, my ever moving routines and personality often desires to rebuke the rest. I grow restless. I find myself wanting to wander and roam like my nomadic Hawaiian forefathers and often times I worry of adventures we may be missing. Sometimes I struggle with not being grateful for where we are, what’s been placed right before us, and what surrounds us with warmth in the stark cold of winter.

Obviously, it’s something I need work on.

I find too that my children are plagued with the same restlessness of needing to get out. To search for something in vain that we don’t even know we’re missing.

Often times I find that it simply cannot be done. We cannot go out: either the conditions are poor or monetary constraints tie us back from adventures and fun that we otherwise would have normally ventured towards.

In those times I find that it can be helpful to have small little secrets tucked away. These aren’t large, expensive treasures that I’ve been keeping. Rather small items that I can pull out to surprise the children and elicit excitement. It’s nothing earth shattering, nothing that will make their head spin. Rather it’s something small to show that I appreciate them. A little trinket to brighten their day, something small to make them smile.

I believe memories are made when we have those little snippets or bursts of feeling loved within our day. A hug, a conversation, a kiss, an affirmation, a gift. It doesn’t have to be something huge or monumental. But our days are filled with pockets of time that make up our lives, little by little. Tiny moment by tiny moment. And when I look back on the whole of my life, the rather simple is what combines to be the best part of the whole. And all the while being something ethereally satisfying to my soul.

As simple as a new eraser, a brand-new pen, a hot cocoa bomb, a sheet of stickers, a batch of cookies, a bath bomb, a movie rental, a new pair of socks, borrowing a new library book, or their favorite meal at supper. These are simple penchants that can make a person feel appreciated, loved, and treasured.

Perhaps it’s because I turned 40 this year but something dawned on me earlier this year: it truly is the small, quiet, simple things that are of the greatest importance in making memories in our lives. Our lives consist of what we do every single day stacked on top of one another and when we add all of that together, mush it up, and knead it in a bowl we’re left with a final product like my friend, chocolate chips, dotting our life with such sweetness. I think the small things are the chocolate chips and those, as every cookie lover here knows, are indeed the very best part.