The Importance of Little Things
Miss Pearl the squirrel presides over Berdoll Pecan Candy in Cedar Creek, Texas.
You can't miss it when you drive by. There's Berdoll Pecan Candy and a 14.5 foot squirrel statue. They say everything's bigger in Texas and the residents are justly proud of their penchant for the large and awesome: big hair, big BBQ grills, big cowboy hats, big stadiums and big hearts. Yet lately, I've been contemplating the essential nature of small things.
Turning over the garden soil you see all kings of earthworms. I work around them gently and send them on their way. Earthworms breakdown dead plant materials and produce on the spot fertilizer. Their tunnels channel air and water to roots. Tiny frogs eat pesky insects and provide food for larger birds. All these little creatures work together in a bigger ecosystem. The same can be said for the little words and gestures that we put out into our world everyday.
St Theresa of Lisieux
St Therese of Lisieux, known as The Little Flower, wrote extensively on the beauty of little things. She is known for her spirituality or "little way." She said, " Miss no opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love." She saw the world as the Lord's garden. She saw herself as a simple, little wildflower unnoticed by the world but giving glory to God in her own way. She felt that just as all flowers had their own beauty, each soul had its own role and beauty. To her, the whiteness of the lily and the splendor of the rose "do not take away the perfume of the violet or the simplicity of the daisy."
St Therese of Lisieux is known as The Little Flower.
She wrote, ”If every flower wanted to be a rose, nature would lose her springtime beauty.”
The little way is all around us even in a modern world: The grocery clerk who always blesses his customers; The barista who acknowledges customers in a long line; Fellow plant lovers chatting at the nursery and a passenger giving up his seat for another rider.
Small gestures illuminate the ecosystem of humanity's heart. No thoughtfulness is too small. There is no tiny miracle. There is no insignificant kindness. Our task is to simply see what is in front of us and make our little corner of the world just a little better.