Appreciating the Little Things (Daily Prompt Writing Challenge)

Daily Prompt Challenge: "Minority" (Day 2920)
Challenge Post Link

Today, I want to write about appreciating the little things. I know some of you might think that this sounds cliché, but hear me out:

Gratitude really makes the world a better place.

I am not just talking about giving and receiving graceful gratitude that makes us feel better. Beyond giving and receiving, being in a grateful disposition gets you to see things in a different light.

Usually in life, our minds default to seeing more of the bad and threats than the good. This is because we are hardwired for survival, so negative things get our attention more than good ones.

The problem with this is that we do not get to "stop and smell the flowers".

We sometimes decide to just get swayed by the news. To be honest, there is a lot of bad news going around because that is just how the media works, and there is money in sensationalism.

But if you just go deeper in life and choose to see the good things a bit more, you will see that there is more kindness going around than greed.

While driving my usual route today, I drove past many beautiful places. Mind you, these are places I see almost daily! Yet today, I had a deeper connection with them. I attribute this to a profound experience I had this morning while meditating.

In my usual meditations, I focus on being at peace and getting out of my senses. However, today I meditated on things that make me feel better.

Mind you, it was a hard find. At first I focused on the usual food and money. Then when I started to run out of things to be grateful for, I started scanning the entire room and looked out at the window.

I appreciated the things I have. And I'm not talking about the big things like a job, money, or work... but also the little things.

The small, quiet, or less-noticed things in life (the “minority” of our attention) often hold the most beauty and meaning.

These include:

the cats I see on the road and sidewalk
the beautiful flowers that bloomed after a heavy storm
the bridge near our home that just got fixed
the beautiful sounds in the river, the trees, and the smell of fresh air when I drive past them.

All these things that I've always known were there, but don't acknowledge because they are not "significant".

When I give them this deliberate appreciation, I start to have a deeper connection to life itself.

I can't help but think that appreciating the things placed in front of me and believing they are there for a reason makes me feel much better and more "connected" to my source of good.

Religions and people might have told us that we should not be the "main character". And I agree, if we set our ego aside, things are really not about us at all.

However, I also believe that when things are placed in certain locations and moments in our lives, sometimes it is the universe connecting with us. It reminds us of our worth and that we deserve to see and experience these beautiful things.

I never argue about spirituality but...

I don't know what happened to religion and theology that made us feel small, or that tells us that feeling meek and undeserving is a noble, holy thing.

I'd like to think that everything around me that is beautiful has been placed there for a reason, and one of those reasons is for me to appreciate it.

The desire to enjoy life's bounties is God seeking expression through me.

I'd like to think that God's joy is to see me happy and to see that I enjoy the things that he has put there for me.

I am not any bigger or better than anyone else. If I am being loved, embraced, and nurtured by nature and the universe, then I believe that everyone else is too. I don't claim to have spiritually grown, or to be 100% awakened or enlightened...

I just think that being human can sometimes be difficult.

The human condition, which is a topic that I write about a lot on this platform, is truly full of struggles and hardships. I'm not saying this because reality is really difficult, hard, and mostly hell.

It's our life-long challenge to be able to get past these appearances and grow in our understanding and faith. Most especially the faith in ourselves.

...the faith and belief that we are deserving and that we are inherently good, and that all these small yet beautiful things are for us to enjoy and appreciate.