Little Things

It’s been well over three months since I first started working out of home. In that time, a lot of awful stuff has been going on - the pandemic, obviously. The politics, obviously. Our continuing insistence to not view others with any amount of compassion or understanding, unfortunately.

Over these past months, Sam and I have shared a lot of time together, doing a lot of things together. Almost all of these things have been small, seemingly inconsequential things. At least, they would seem to be that way by most measures.

One of the things we've done is go on walks. A lot of walks.

It can be argued, perhaps rightfully, that going on these walks has been pretty useless. After all, we don’t really go anywhere. We walk over familiar town roads. We walk through the quiet woods. We walk across dusty farm fields. Almost always, we're treading paths we’ve walked many times before.

We walk in loops, big and small, always ending up where we began.

Most of our walks are in semi-silence - small conversations, at most. Often, only a stray comment is made as we walk along our path.

Sometimes we talk about some awfulness in the news - often involving something which I struggle to explain.

Sometimes, we talk about little things: about how pretty the clouds look or how green the fields are or how beautiful the air smells after a rainfall on a hot summer's day.

Sometimes we spot small creatures - a toad or a turtle or a snake. And when we do, we stop and watch as it as it climbs or crawls and goes about living it's life - in spite of our unwanted intrusion. We stand together quietly, almost in amazement, remarking about what's in front of us - until  it disappears. Then we, too, move along - fading once again into our thoughtful silence as we continue down our path.

Every day, we walk our big loop. Every day, somewhere different.  Every day, ending up where we started - but still further along than where we were.

Sometimes, with all of the awfulness that surrounds us, it's easy to lose site of how important these little things are. Our lives are made up of these small, seemingly inconsequential moments. But they matter. They give balance to our lives. We carry them with us and they become a part of who we are. And sometimes, they become a part of whom we choose to share these moments with.