It's the Little Things

I lead a pretty quiet life.  That is quite what I prefer.  And I am tremendously pleased by pretty simple, insignificant things.  Like when I think that I am using the last of my stamps and then realize there is a whole new page of them folded underneath.  Yay.  That's eight more postcards to send before I have to trek to the post for more.

 

It's these little seemingly trivial or inconsequential every-day things which make life so joyful and pleasant for me.  If I needed big things to capture that joy I can only imagine how much more joyless I would be in the end.  I am so grateful to be satisfied with the little things. 

It's so easy to snag the pleasure of a warm cup of good black tea while standing at the window watching the birds mob the feeder.  It's so cheap to stroll through the neighborhood, hand in hand with Matt, noting neat fences and garden beds and flowering bushes that we've never seen before or that are changing dramatically with the seasons.  It's so enjoyable to make a fresh, yummy meal at home to share with grateful friends over a table of warmth and laughter.  It's so exhilarating to get caught up in a really good book wrapped up in a blanket against the winter chill or while swinging in the hammock in the summer sun.  It's so satisfying to take something torn and broken and fix it back to good-as-new.  It's such a thrill to open the mailbox and have a handwritten letter or note from someone.  I just can't get enough of the little things.  They make me so happy.  They make me feel like I am on to the biggest, best secret ever.

Perhaps that's it.  The "secret" to being happier is to notice and value and find joy in all the little things.  The simple things.  Because they are so easy to find each and every day if you are looking for them.