Thursday, October 01, 2009

It's the small things...

Have you ever looked really closely at Normal Rockwell's paintings? They are particularly remarkable because he paid such close attention to the details of ordinary life. He somehow managed to capture those seemingly incidental happenings of every day life and people and put them on canvas. His paintings remind me to stop and consider the small things in life that make it life.

Some things I noticed today:
A happy little chipmunk scampering up and down a flight of stairs, leaping onto the banister, hurling itself off the banister into an obliging bush nearby and then back to the stairs. So much energy and enthusiasm in that little force of nature.

A man whistling "Fur Elise" out of tune as he cheerily worked on replacing one of the light bulbs in our building. It might have been off-key, but his rendition of Beethoven brought a smile to my face.

The smell of homemade pumpkin bread when I woke up this morning... residual from last night's undertaking. Made me want to climb out of bed, heat up some tea and curl up on the couch with buttered slice in hand.

The birds chirping outside - you know, they sound different when the weather changes. Are there "cold weather birds" and "hot weather birds"?

The progressive change in the leaves' color - Fall is steadily approaching and bringing with it chilly nights and cool days. The heat of summer is hopefully behind us!

Happy 1st day of October!

1 comment:

gwendolyn said...

Thanks, Sweetie, for the reminder to stop and smell the roses. I was reading Thomas Merton this morning and he was expressing very similiar sentiments.