It's The Little Things!

The Gardens at Biltmore Estate - Asheville, NC

April 21, 2013

Depending on whether you are a "glass half-full or glass half-empty" kind of person, you may have looked at the title of this post and decided it was either going to be a gripe fest or an uplifting few minutes of all good things.  Well, its going to be BOTH!  For me, little things do mean a lot.  I'm a very simple person who chooses to look at life through a simple lens and am grateful to have cultivated the habit of letting simple pleasures mean a lot.  It doesn't take much to make me happy, but on the other hand, neither does it take much to make me sad.  Little things add up, so here a few things that are making me happy these days along with a few that are making me pause!

Little HAPPY things........

 1) Tulips - It's a toss-up between tulips and gerbera daisies as to which is my favorite spring flower, but when at Biltmore Estate during their spring Festival of Flowers, it's tulips no doubt.  The primary reason we hold on to our season passes from year to year is to visit their amazing gardens during each growing season.  The tulips were amzing!

2) A view like this.............

...........that was all mine for an entire weekend.  

3) Coffee - I'm an all day coffee drinker, but in keeping with my mantra of enjoying simple pleasures, I'm not real picky about it.  In fact, I'm not sure I've ever met a cup of coffee I DIDN'T like!  But as you can tell from this picture taken among the tulips......

...........my cup of coffee is never far from me.  And for some reason, on this particular day, I was savoring every sip of that simple cup of coffee from the nationwide gourmet coffee brewer AKA McDonalds!

4) A sense of anticipation - Bill is on his final countdown before the end of another successful academic year.  Only a couple of performances remain and he will be finished.  We are both excited about our summer plans (which will be revealed on Monday) and that quiet sense of excitement permeates our days and hours.

5) All things outdoors.  Need I say more??  When you read this, I will likely be on one of my favorite hiking trails with my good friends, Gene and Judi.  That makes me happy!

And the NOT-SO-HAPPY things..............

1)  A friend in need (and the helpless feeling that comes with not knowing how to help)!

2) Pollen (and red, itchy eyes that go along with it).

3) Watching my mom (who is 85) and otherwise healthy, suffer through acute bronchitis.

4)  Painful wrists/hands that will likely keep me from biking this year.

5)  A world where so many seem to have lost all hope.

And so you see what is on my mind as I write this on a rainy, windy Wednesday afternoon in East Tennessee.  So many more things come to mind, but I am most grateful for the fact that yes, in the whole scheme of things, these are "little" things.  And for every little "sad" thing, it takes me only a matter of seconds to balance that with something equally joyful!   I hope you see it the same way.

Tell me some of the LITTLE things on your mind today!