Little things, big impact.

Word count: 1008.

You have had a bad day. Nothing seems like it will go right. Now, even though you are in a bad mood and want to do a whole lot of nothing, you need to go to the store for diapers. Your child only has enough to get through the rest of today, so you have no choice. Your spouse suggests you walk to the store. It is only a few blocks from your house. The fresh air might make you feel a little better. You agree. You put on your shoes and socks. You grab a light jacket because the wind has a little chill to it. You start walking. The sidewalk in front and behind you is completely empty. You have time to think with no real interruptions. You walk slow and think about the day and what is bothering you. You hear a dog barking. Thought is paused for only a moment while you look over to see where the dog is. He hasn’t even got up. He is laying down in his dog house and barking at you.
‘Lazy pup.’ You think to yourself. You smile.
You are barely past the dog and you have already forgotten about him. You start thinking about your problems again. Without thinking or taking your mind off of your problems, you look both ways down the road to see if there are any cars coming. No cars. It is safe to cross. When you look back up the sidewalk, you notice a tree. It is full of all different colors. Some green, yellow, red…
‘The trees are so pretty in the fall.’ Again you smile. You stare at the tree until you are right up to it.
Once past the tree, it is forgotten. You come back to your earlier thoughts. You still don’t know what to do. Things are hard, and there seems to be no way out. So deep in thought, you don’t realize that you have covered three more blocks and the store. Someone says hi to you. You look up to see who it was. It was one of your good friends. You say hi back. Again, you are smiling. Then you look around. You finally realize that you have passed your destination. You grumble to yourself. Now you have to back track. Then you think to yourself,
‘Why don’t I just circle the block? I am kind of enjoying the fresh air.’
It’s not much further. You circle the block and come back to the store. You are too wrapped up in thinking about being in your own head and passing the store that you don’t even think about your problems at home.
In the store you walk down different isles. You know where the diapers are. They are not hard to find, but you want to look around and see what else the store has to offer. After a few minutes of perusing the store, you finally pick up your diapers. You walk up to the cash register. Since it is a local store, you know the clerk and you chat with her for a few minutes while she rings up your total. Without giving much thought to it, you hand her your money. She hands you change and a receipt. You take your bag of diapers and start for home. You get ready to walk down the sidewalk that leads straight to your house, but then you look down a different direction. You decide to take the scenic route. Along the way you see children playing kick ball at one house and children jumping on a trampoline at the house across the street. When you cross a road, a dog greets you and walks across with you. He stops at the other side, wags his tail, and licks your hand. You pet him for a few seconds, and then he crosses the street again and sits on his front porch waiting for the next person that needs to cross the street. There are many more pretty trees on this street, and lots of children playing in their yards.
When you finally make it home, you walk in the front door with a smile on your face. Your spouse sees the smile and walks over to hug you.
You have temporarily forgotten about your problems and you are happy. It wasn’t really the walk that did it. It was the little things along the way. The lazy dog. The changing color leaves on the tree. Someone saying hi to you. Forgetting where you were going and having to walk around the block. Taking the scenic route. The perusing the isles with not a care. Children playing. A dog helping you across the street then waiting for the next person. The fresh air. The birds chirping in the trees, unseen. The gentle breeze blowing in your face. Your spouse hugging you when you walk into the door. Knowing that you were able to smile after having a bad day. Just for a short while, all of your worries, all of your problems, vanished into thin air. They were gone for just a short while and you were happy.
For the most part, these are all normal, everyday occurrences. There is nothing special about it. But today, there was something special about these small, usually unnoticed things. They made you feel better. You don’t know how, but you feel better. It was the little things that didn’t mean a whole lot. Today, the little things meant the world to you.
The little things may go unnoticed, but they play a big part in our lives. They can change our moods without us even realizing it. The little things play such a big part in our lives and we don’t even know it. At the end of the day, if you think back on everything that has happened, you might notice those little things. The more you look for them, the easier it will be to notice them. The more clear life might become.