Lately, the little things don’t look like backyard adventures.
They look more like shopping for dress pants and cheap ties that might fit the boy for two weeks,
and practices and performances,
and algebra lessons,
and end of semester field trips,
and birthday celebrations,
and meetings,
and big decisions for next year.
The little things look like begging sorry to my honey for leaving bagel crumbs on the kitchen counter as I go flying out the door.
Looks like forgetting what I came for
and coming back for what I forgot.
Looks like living in the country means we can’t run home and throw in a load.
Looks like we’re getting things halfway done and digging through piles for socks,
Looks like drinking lots of coffee and crawling out of bed tired.
Looks like not finishing anything.
Looks like wondering how other people get all this stuff right,
and then remembering that I’m almost 50 and
most certainly beyond such penchants to compare.
It also looks, conversely and hormonally,
like I’m old enough not to give a flip what anybody else is doing and how.
Looks like I’m glad for my girlfriends- doing whatever their doing,
smiling at me with that knowing smile,
it’s in the little things- even when they go very fast.
Looks like racing out early in the morning to check the baby bluebirds in my bath robe and staying up late listening to the non-stop, run-on sentence plans of two very active, young people. Trucks and cars and apartments and jobs and school and girls and guys and this one and that one and today and forever…
golden sound waves and bleary eyes.
Looks like my husband can’t find me,
but my toes can still find his toes under the covers.
Looks like my boy will drive.
Looks like I will soon be forced to wear shorts again.
Looks like I won’t be getting any younger.
Looks like I don’t know what’s coming next.
Looks like, when it comes to self improvement, my greatest opposition is
myself.
Looks like the little things are imperfect and profound and sweet and that even in the messed up mess of the day, I find myself stopping to say thank you.
Life in little things looks like embracing frustration and reaping joy,
It looks like running on empty and finding it full.
It looks like this life, this very minute.
Photo by Will Whittier@2012
Thank you God for little things,
Thank you for my little people, who aren’t so little anymore,
Thank you for the little moments that add up to big ones.
Thank you for my faulty processes and my little failures,
Thank you for stolen moments and infinite noise.
Thank you for the little things.
edenstream.com - catherine whittier 
Beautiful lady, beautiful words, the little things are what build the most precious times of life lived and joy in the living. Embrace it! Thank you for your part in my life.
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Thank you, dear friend. When things slow down, we will try some little things together! xo
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Looks like 10 minutes in the hammock with my little one, watching the emerald leaves blow in the wind against a baby-blue sky … then, back to the roller coaster of life.
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Looks like spending 10 minutes in the hammock with my little one watching emerald leaves blow in the wind against a baby-blue sky … then, back to the whirlwind of life.
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Ahhhhhhhh….. what a sweet and magical ten minutes. Thanks for sharing- for a second, I felt like I was breathing the same air. 🙂
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You inspire me Mrs. Whittier…I want to write like you someday. I need to come visit soon! 🙂
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Jason- “Thanks so much” isn’t the just right thing to say here. I’m so honored by your comment, because I know how you love to read. Thanks for reading my work and thanks your encouragement- it means more than you can know. I’m looking forward to our next visit!
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I enjoy your writings very much, they are so close to my feelings that I don’t take time to express. You inspire me to start writing in my journal again. Love to all the Whittiers!
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Thanks so much, Sharon. Your words inspire me! I hope you will begin to journal again~ you have many stories to tell and I would love to hear them if you would like to share.
I will always think of you sitting across the aisle from me in the big bus 🙂 Love to you xo
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I love this! You put my feelings into words so well. 🙂
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Thanks, April 🙂 ❤
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I am loving exploring your writing, Catherine. You make me laugh, sigh and almost cry in the space of a few moments.
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It’s good to walk the path together… xo
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Looks Like….I have a beautiful, elegant wife that put our life in to words that so capture every detail and make it sound as If I can’t live without it…and her.
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“…10 I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. 11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;…” Ecclesiastes 3:10-12
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So true… ❤
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