"It is the small things that give us maximum pleasure.One of the parameters of becoming spiritually mature is your ability to enjoy the small things of life"
The first long breath of the day,the freshness of the newly born dawn,the feel of your feet against the cold floor,the chirping of pert little magpie-robbins,the first smile on your face from your child,the smell and flavour of your first coffee----Everything,everything can be a cause for celebration.
Despite knowing that life is short we clutter it up with reactions,resistance, anger,disappointment, envy,gossip,etc. With so much baggage upon us,there is no doubt that we actually 'sleepwalk' through life.We swing from the past to the future and miss the present totally.
A book named 'Simple Abundance' explains the full hearted enjoyment of every sensory pleasure of sight,sound,smell,touch and taste(of a girl named Sarah).After a few months of misery,her senses returned one at a time,and this time she was in no danger of taking them for granted. She writes,"I cried eating a ripe,juicy peach.I cried at the dazzling sight of a bright sunlight streaming through a newly washed window.Listening to music made me weep.So did being able to wear my favourite sweater."
We go through life as if we are majesty,always expecting red-carpet treatment.We want everyone to be nice to us,laugh/cry when we want them to,be considerate of our emotions and take good care of us.We want to be happy,comfortable,rich and well all the time,,understandable,certainly.Which is why we get into a huff when things don't go our way.
But the truth of the matter is that there are no guarantees,Life gives us absolutely none.There's no guarantee that even our parents/grandparents will love us(experience tells me),leave aside the rest of the world.The strange thing is that once we drop expectations,we will value every tiny thing that comes our way.
All the gifts of life,small and big,glow with their own lustre only when we consider them as gifts and not something we were meant to receive.Only when we value small moments of life,will we experience the real joy and adventure of it.
