Little Things

I've been reading through 300+ blogs and news articles this morning, catching up with what's going on since I left town Saturday morning, and nothing seems to be new. The presidential race is just the same, although it appears McCain is slowly falling in the polls. The dodgers are still behind in the series, although they did win with force last night at home. My cats sleep all morning, eat a snack, and then sleep all afternoon--although they have been awake longer this morning than I’ve seen in the past month. 

I like the subtle differences. Sometimes it's just a little, but just that little bit helps you look back and notice how much is different over a longer period. If you can notice that your hair now fits into a ponytail where it didn't just a week ago, you can look back and see that your hair has grown three inches in the last six months (and maybe it's time for a haircut). 

And if you can look at the little things in life that are just a little different than they were just a week ago, a month ago, a year ago...then maybe it's possible to spot growth you wouldn't have otherwise noticed. Maybe it's that your kid is in the 6th grade. Which means he/she has worked hard and grown enough to move on from the 5th grade. Maybe you finished a semester of school. Which means you've gained 18 more credits toward that degree you're working on. Maybe you've written seven blogs this month. Which surpasses your previous month by two blogs. Which means you've accomplished the first part of your monthly goal of blogging at least twice a week.

Every little change, every little accomplishment is a grain of sand. And the grains end up being our days, our shores, our lives. Every piece contributes to who we are, where we came from, and where we’re going. It’s not that we need to notice every little detail, it’s that we need not forget about them. They tell us where we’re going, who we are, where we’ve been. If we don’t like something we can always change it, but not if we don’t notice it.

That’s when we end up with hair that’s wild and unruly; don’t sign up for next semester’s classes; stop writing blogs; stop living the way we set out to when we got ourselves “realigned” after therapy, or that marathon, or vacation…whatever it was that got us “back” on track has slowly slipped out of our peripheral vision. We just need to look left, look right, and see what our shores, our lives really look like. Without that, we end up looking around ourselves, at an unrecognizable mess...singing Talking Heads lyrics to ourselves. And don't we all need to know how we got here?