Little Things
My great-grandmother had an eye for detail. She noticed. She noticed the world around her. She painted what she saw on the inside of clamshells, on a tiny painting in a dollhouse, inside an elaborately decorated eggshell, or on the edge of china plates. She would mix her paints on a palette until she matched the colors of the sky, the clouds, the green blades of grass, and the dark ocean waves. She took time to notice the details, to lay in the grass and see the tiny flowers, remarking how happy they were—and then she would paint them.
I thought of her this morning when I reached for the latch to open the gate and a beautiful, blood-orange Mexican sunflower grabbed my attention as if it were saying, “Hello, good morning.” The petals looked like velvet and the inside had tiny little yellow flowers that would later let the hummingbirds know there was sweet nectar for them today, a gift of food, of life, of beauty. There are amazing things happening all around us, every minute, every second of the day. Trees, flowers, our pets, birds, and people all trying to communicate with us—we just have to stop and notice.
My great-grandmother knew a secret. It’s the little things that matter, the details. Perhaps it was the times she lived in. Her mother died when she was six and her father died when she was eleven. After that she and her sister went from family to family, never finding a home of their own. At twenty-one, she married and wrote in her journal. “I really don’t know how a girl could be 21 years old and know as little about life as I did, or the best way to live it. All I knew was to do just what came naturally, and I guess that one factor in my life was that I was truly ignorant of problems to be faced, so therefore could be very happy living in a dream world. I had much to learn - we didn’t have the conveniences of today, and looking back, I don’t see how were managed. However, as I had nothing to start with, I surely had nothing to lose.”
I can’t help but think that noticing the tiny things is where she found her joy and hope, and how she survived the many hardships of her life including the years of the Depression. She sought out the gifts each day had to offer. And she spent her time creating beauty with her hands—making dolls, hand sewing tiny stitches for their clothes, stringing beads, and painting until her hands could no longer hold a paintbrush. She died at 97. But during her time on this earth, she shared the secret to life. It’s in the little things. All you have to do is notice them and they will give their treasures freely. The trees, the desert, the grass, the clouds, they all have something to say about life and death. She once told my older sister that the stars in the sky were the spirits of all the people that loved her. If everyone on this earth knew they were loved that much it would be a different world.
Listen to the song here Little Things
Little Things
There’s a secret, that I know
I heard it a long long time ago
She whispered it softly in my ear
When I close my eyes it’s oh so clear
Lying in the grass, she winked at me
She said, “It’s the little things that make life sweet.”
A drop of dew on a blade of grass
Reflecting the sky like a piece of glass
On the velvet moss beneath the leaves
A tiny snail sits on a pillow of green
And in the twisted branches of a live oak tree
There’s a message of hope for you and me
When life gets hard, take a look around
There’s beauty and life right where you are
A little everyday magic that will help you see
It’s the little things that make life sweet
It’s the little things that make life sweet
It’s the morning sun painting the sky
And the moonlight shining on the snow at night
The shades of blue in an ocean wave
The seeds of a flower the wind carries away
The layers of time etched in a stone
The bark of a tree that feeds its own
When life gets hard, take a look around
There’s beauty and life right where you are
A little everyday magic that will help you see
It’s the little things that make life sweet
It’s the little things that make life sweet
©2019 Elk Mountain Music ASCAP Trisha Leone Sandora, Mickey Sandora