Small things amuse small minds, as the saying goes. Yet simplicity need not necessarily be boring or banal. Often, the simplest thing can have about it an elegance and grace which is obscured or totally lost in more complex, intricate items or situations.
Here I need to let you into a secret – I am actually referring to my pencil.
How many of you reading this now still use a pencil?
It is an amazing invention which has contributed in no small way to the progress of civilization. Consider: it is robust, lightweight, made from natural and largely renewable resources and is totally biodegradable. it does not need electricity or other energy to power it. It will operate under water or if the writer is upside-down, or in any other less usual, awkward position. AND, if you wish, you can erase the marks you have made with it. Amazing!
Recently, due to early autumns storms (just how many tail-ends of hurricanes have we had up to now?) our electricity supply was playing at lighthouses, flashing on and off, and our internet connection got fed up and went to sleep. So, no access to my webpage. However, feeling inspired to ‘chat’, I decided to carry on and joy down some thoughts in long-hand which I am now transferring to my computer. Fountain and ball point pens are great, but I often derive great pleasure from holding and writing with a pencil on fresh white sheets of paper.
My current pencil is slim, cylindrical and black, with a shiny metal top into which an incredibly useful eraser has been inserted. Functional, smart, it is a joy to hold and use.
Yes, perhaps this ‘small mind’ is finding pleasure in a mundane item and activity, but why not?
If satisfaction and joy can be discovered in all our basic repetitive activities, how glorious our lives might become. Hence my favourite catch phrase: ‘make much of little’.
What can YOU find in your everyday tasks to which brings you pleasure? And if you can’t find anything, what can you do to change your daily round to one which is more appealing and satisfying?
I would dearly love to hear from you, my readers, as to what simple little things in your daily lives gives you pleasure. It doesn’t matter how seemingly trivial. From such minutiae comes the metaphorical ‘glue’ which cements our life into a cohesive whole.
