I have more and more come to feel that an important part of life is noticing and appreciating the small things. Like the hug from my wife in the morning. Or the smile from the driver of the car we let by. The beautiful magnolia tree that has just started to bloom. Or the joy in our son’s eyes when I talk to him about his favorite Star Wars droids. There really are small pleasures everywhere, if you can just see them. Sometimes they are hidden by bigger darker aspects of life that might be happening, sometimes they are just passed by unnoticed while you are pondering what to cook tonight while trying not to forget the memorized grocery list. But they are still there, sometimes jumping out at you in the middle of your busy life when you are the least expecting them.
Coming to the bus stop the other day, my eyes were drawn towards a colorful patch on the opposite side of the road. Walking over with my son, we saw that there was a brand new sticker attached to the road reminding children to stop and look left and right before crossing. At our corner, every morning, we have been looking at a similar sticker while waiting for the bus. We have used it for reading practice as well as for discussions regarding road safety, but seeing the shining new colorful sticker on the other side of the road I realized “our” sticker really has seen its best days. There is almost no color left and when I look at photos from a few years back I can see just how much the colors have worn off. By the time my son will start school and we stop waiting for the bus in the mornings, I am sure the colors will be all gone.
It was such a beautiful image of the passage of time, of our little boy growing up – next year when school starts, he will walk on the side where the new sticker is. Maybe our corner will also have gotten a new sticker by then.
