Reflection: The Small Things — The World As I See It

It seems like we spend a large portion of our lives in pursuit of ”something.”

We may not be entirely sure what that something is, but we often end up going after it with good intentions and lots of energy. More often than not that "something" tends to be fairly large or significant because we operate under the assumption that life somehow needs to be significant.

We search for meaning, whatever that may be.

We talk about wanting to "change the world" and often that involves some pretty big plans. We launch ourselves into magnificent projects and then we discover that the things we want to change are really much bigger than our ability to change them.

Perhaps we feel discouraged; we feel powerless if even just for a moment; perhaps we have to adjust our goals downwards on the scale… or perhaps we stubbornly forge forward determined to somehow get to that major change in the world that we believe we can make.

John Lennon famously said: ”life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.”

For me, the truth behind that statement has always been that we tend to overlook and forget many of life's small pleasures; the beauty that is all around us but that we don't notice because we are too busy looking for ”the magnificent” on a grand scale.

From time to time, I have written about always having felt like I had ”a lack of ambition.”

That is perhaps not entirely accurate, perhaps a better way of stating it would be that I have a lack of large ambitions. I never visualized myself as a "world changer," in any sense, nor did I aspire to become one. My ambition tends to come from the inside; from examining the inner worlds; from doing a thing that perhaps makes a single person pause and reflect on that moment.

Most of us have opinions and beliefs, but it's very difficult to actually verbalize how those ”feel” in such a way that another person can truly understand them.

In many ways, ”the world as I see it” is not represented by the Empire State Building or the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel Tower, but by the pictures on this page; by the amazing intricacy of the natural world that is all around us and yet we pass by it every day with little more thought than ”Cool! That's a really pretty flower!”

I won't deny that there are large accomplishments that truly change the world. At the same time, however, I also feel pretty certain that the vast majority of things that happen — tangible changes that happen — happen as a result of little tiny incremental adjustments and observations; as a result of a single person somewhere taking a different route home from work, thereby ending up sitting by a lake for 10 minutes rather than being stuck for that time in a traffic jam… as a result of which they experience a moment of peace in their existence that they would not otherwise have had.

Small things are almost infinite in their number. It's unlikely that we'll actually remember any of them… or maybe we do, but we never pass comment on them because we feel they're too insignificant to warrant mentioning.

So if there's a message behind these words, it is perhaps that people would be wise to pause and honor — even if just for a couple of minutes — all those small things that already are, while on their way to chasing that Lambo!

Or whatever it is, that keeps you too focused to notice anything else...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-03-14 00:15 PST
0769/2024