My Advice - In Case Someone Ever Asks!

I was on someones blog this morning and this lovely little graphic, which I found impossible to copy over read

REMEMBER THE LITTLE THINGS BECAUSE ONE DAY YOU WILL LOOK BACK AND FIND THEY WERE THE BIG THINGS

That struck me as valuable advice. Advice I probably would not have appreciated when I was young. I had my eye on bigger things.
I wanted to do big things.
I wanted to experience big things.
I wanted to make a big difference....a good difference, but big.
I wanted to read a million books.
I wanted to meet a million people.
I wanted my life to have mattered in a big way.
I wanted truly big things for those I loved.
I wanted big changes
big trips
big hugs
big drama like in the movies.

Well, dear reader, big time has gone by.
And my big tears have fallen.
And my big dreams have died.

What I cherish now are the things I thought were little things once upon a time.
I cherish those little ones who were my siblings. I go back and think on who they were, how much they needed, how little they got.
I cherish the time when I was about 7 and was sent down to stoke the furnace and found a tiny mouse in a trap. I got a stick of some kind and pried the trap open and let the mouse out. And I cherish that my Dad and Mom didn't get mad. They laughed.
I cherish quiet, unbelievably hot days on the farm with Aunt Edna and Uncle Fred. Nothing happening, just walking the fields, helping with haying. And finding kittens down the well. I got a bucket and ran it down and bailed those kittens out. I cherish that although Uncle Fred had actually thrown them down the well...common farm practice....he didn't tell me that. He simply smiled and made me feel good about myself.
I cherish sitting by myself in the little church praying by myself ... the perfection of churchly silence...the smell of old hymnals...the dusty sun rays slanting over the pews....the tiny sounds of church mice.
I cherish the muddy, wormy smell of the river. Lying in its water, looking up at the sky...dreaming and wondering and not wanting for a thing in the moment...just being, one with the water...just letting go and being lost in time.
I cherish picking or being led to pick the perfect place to go away to the road that would lead to my future husband. The one man my soul would recognize.
I Cherish the moment we met...to go ice skating...to skate on together forever.
I cherish the three bits of our hearts together who grew apart from us.

I cherish every little moment that make up my life...and I barely remember what I once thought were the big things.