When big things are happening…

small things matter more.

I recently watched the Bob Dylan movie “A Complete Unknown”, where we get to peek in at a young Dylan playing guitar at tiny little nightclubs and cafes in Greenwich Village.  The small scale of these scenes made me smile.  A welcome reminder of the value of small things.  Those small concerts in small cafes shaped his skills and his art and his voice.  The value wasn’t in what was to come, but what was happening in that moment to that one person and to the small group that experienced it with him.  

So often our busy daily lives feel like full-scale productions, everything constantly moving.  And when big things are happening in the world (things beyond our control), it can make us feel like we are on a big-production movie set. Like we are Extras in a busy city-scene who are on our way to the busy things in our busy lives like all of the other Extras, and all the while the big story of the movie is happening over us. 

So I’m sitting in the theater watching Bob Dylan in that tiny cafe with 15 people listening to his music, and I’m reminded that the small things matter more.  The small reassuring smile you give that mom with the crying kid in the grocery store, matters more than the effort it took to find the time to get to the grocery store.  The small mid-morning conversation that you had with your retired mom, matters more than the vacations that your facebook friends are on right now.  The hour you spend with your small book club matters more than the big important things you could have been doing with that one hour.      

We need to live in the world - even when big things are happening.  But we can fight back.  We can end our day thinking about the small things we did.  

Because they matter more.  

Until next time,

Laura