The little things

Every now and then I realize that my mind is going 50 billion directions at once and I feel so overwhelmed with the list of things in my head to remember or do or buy or say that I just have to take a step back. Yesterday was that day for me.

Waking up to such a shocking sight as your cat pooping along the carpet** may serve to shock you into realizing you're not nearly ZEN enough today.

So I walked around outside barefoot and felt the power of the earth beneath my feet, I practiced making a tinder ball well enough to start a fire in the wilderness, we took a drive in the canyon and saw deer and squirrels and ducks and tiny little birds, I took a 3 hour nap, I sipped tea, I read, and knitted and meditated on my knitting. I layed on the floor and stared at the ceiling. In short, it was exactly what I needed.

A thought struck me as we were driving through the canyon. There are mice (and other creatures) who will live their whole lives in that canyon within 2 miles of the highway, but they know every blade of grass in their small world and they know when it has been disturbed. They feel the other animals, they know where water is, they know the good places to hide.

Our worlds are so big, with the internet making our neighborhoods global, and our man-made boundaries of states and countries. Space and interstellar travel... and yet, me miss the microcosm. We don't even notice the plants that surround our homes unless we plant them ourselves, we don't notice the spiders and mice and other creatures who share our space unless they become a problem to us. We miss the natural order of things because we're so busy planning how to change it. Which way is better? Knowing the microcosm at the cost of missing the big picutre? The mice and birds don't know how they fit in with the scheme of the world, but neither do they CARE. But if we worry so much about the macrocosm, we miss so much beauty!

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be able to change our world and make it better, or make it better suited to us at least... I just think that we should take the time to dwell on the earth and all it's inhabitants with reverence. Afterall, we are all interconnected whether we like to admit it or not. And I find that the more people focus on the little things and acknowledge them, the happier they are.

Stop to pick up a rock and REALLY look at it next time you're outside. That rock will probably never be held by another person. EVER. Take the time to appreciate it. Time is the only thing we can really give back to the earth for all it gives to us.

M

**Thanks for all the advice and concern. Ekho is fine. Did some investigating and figured that he got at some of the chicken on the stove that we had left uncovered... it was spiced for tacos. If I were him with chili pepper, garlic and tabasco coming out my bum I'd probably have tried to rub in off on the floor too. I checked for anal gland problems, and there was no evidence for that. And he's up to date on his worm shots. It was solid normal poop too... ok... that's enough of that.

*ETA* Just after I posted I saw this on Judy's blog. Beautiful!