The Little Things

It's the little things that matter. 
An acquaintance asking how your day went. A stranger offering to pay the difference when you don't have enough change in the aisle in Tesco. A friend buying your favourite chocolate bar, well, just because. Building a giant snowman with friends just for the sake of teamwork and because it's worth seeing the faces on the strangers that pass by all 9 foot of the smiley, snowy fellow.

Today has made me appreciate just how much the small things matter.
It's not the grand gestures which people want to be noticed for they are done out of selfishness and pride. It's the small acts of self-sacrifice done for the benefit of others, with no advancement of self intended. It's the insignificant things you barely notice as you go about your day, and when you get home and have time to reflect, and think - wow, I should really be thankful for having that in my life.

I began reading the autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux (Story of a Soul) when I was fourteen, and never fully read it through, but now I've picked it up again nearly six years later and I am still utterly amazed at how much the small things really do amount  to greatness. When I was younger and did small things for others, they were barely noticed, or at least I thought that. Offering to fetch something from the staff room just to save the effort of the teacher doing so or buying a friend a packet of crisps out of my own pocket and refusing payment simply because it meant they were that bit happier; and I was the cause of that smile on their face. I became a cynic all too quickly, because I thought my small acts of kindness were going unnoticed, unappreciated and most importantly taken for granted.

But none of that matters, or at least none of it should matter, when you do things out of self-sacrifice. You turn the other cheek, and don't care how hard you get slapped on the other side because the very fact that you improved the world just that little bit means that you made a difference, and you showed somebody you care even if they didn't return that love.

 People remember things when the motive behind actions aren't selfish. They remember acts of kindness done to them because they often feel the need to return it. They remember the nature of the individual who showed them such humane behaviour. They remember it because that person showed them how to live well.

I remember on a Christian retreat a few years ago, the theme was "Live Simply" - which didn't mean depriving yourself of your desires, but it meant just thinking about your actions, perhaps limiting yourself a little, but not to the extent of frugality, but just enough to think about others and simplify your actions to cause a little more love in the world. Too many people complicate situations which are pretty straight-forward. As humans, we have an uncanny ability to make things a lot harder than they ought to be. The world in itself is a complex device, but that doesn't have to mean that we have to add to that. Our lives can still be simple, but have a great deal of meaning.

I hark back to St Therese again as she simply is the perfect example. She became a Carmelite nun at aged 15. Times in the 1800's were indeed more religious than now and she did come from a very pious family, but all the same, fifteen years of age is pretty devoted to say the least. She dedicated herself wholly (she entered an enclosed order of nuns, which meant she had little, and preferably no contact with the outside world) which to most of you reading this I assume would be nonsensical, ridiculous and even debilitating. She died at twenty four years of age, yet in that small amount of time in her life she learnt the value of loving for the sake of loving, much more than many people learn in their whole lifetimes. When I was fourteen, and indeed even now, she was and remains to be my ideal witness to faith. She is the person who I strive to emulate in my life, simply because she completely and simply understood the capacity every human has to love. And love, in all its forms, is essentially simple to understand, and can be felt across the globe, transcending every nation, race, gender and religion. Love is the great goal behind every little act.

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love?  Great deeds are forbidden me.  The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and every word and the doing of the least actions for love.”  

~St. Therese of Lisieux