Beauty in the Little Things

It has been a very busy few months, starting with the "superstorm" through the holidays and now into the new year. I have to say it has been mostly good with the exciting fun of my first two blog tours and all the new contacts. But it has also been a bit of swirling, caught up in the moment craziness.

This past week I have forced myself to take a step back and take a deep breath. I just love it when I feel the calm oozing through every corner of my body and let the tumult of life give way to a state of relaxation, even if only for a moment.

So, when I was in that, relaxed, quiet, calm state my brain, of course, didn't stay still. I remembered one of my first poems:

Bare Branches

Sunlight falls on bare branches

Pale blue sky over-arches.

Peaceful winter solitude

Waiting beside a city street.

 

Who can see it? Who cannot?

Do you feel it in your heart?

All the beauty all around

Where you find it, if you look.

 

Hustle, bustle, race around.

Deadlines, meetings, have to do.

Time is short, can't slow down.

Too much work, too far to go.

 

But then you stop and look up;

Pause a minute, slow inhale.

Beauty, all around. Just one

Minute makes all the difference.

 

from Conditions 

 

And then I thought of how many little things really make me happy. And they are always there. A loved one's touch or voice. The dappling of the sun on the ground. The patterns of the clouds. The sound of the swirling wind or the patter of rain from safely under cover. The luxuriousness of a completely relaxed, sleeping cat. The twinkling stars on a cold clear winter night.

The devil is in the details. But so is the angel.

Wonder

The wonder comes by, now, in the quiet times

Softly taking its place like some remembered rhymes

I find it now in the glow of your eyes

Or the fascination with a politician’s lies

No longer the thing of everyday

More like a friend once gone away

Who returns to pick up where we left off

Like nothing happened in between, laugh.

I like the wonder of the small things

Things lost before in the thunder of wings

Or the marvel of an immense buffalo herd

Reduced to the glamour of a single bird

The edges of your mouth when it starts to smile

The confusion of a teen when he sees a phone dial

The wonder is all that and more, by the bye

Little things that bring a twinkle to the eye.

from Observations