WARNING. this is going to sound so simple, you’re not going to believe it can work. that is what i hear time and time again from friends, right after they tell me it is, in fact, working. and not just that…it’s making a HUGE difference in their day.
get ready for the absolute easiest thing you can do to boost your mood and improve the way you look at your day! and i take zero credit because i stumbled upon it by accident…
18 years ago, i was in college {eek! i do NOT feel as old as that sounds!}. also, i thought i was busy. it’s ok to laugh. by college standards, i guess i was busy. class, volunteering, work, friends, social life. of course now, as a work-at-home mom of three, i think i can stake a greater claim on BUSY. these days, an open time slot can fill in a second with doctors visits, grocery runs, work deadlines, and carpools. it is so easy to slip into the cycle of constantly prepping for the next big thing. just me?
in college, i was looking for a slower pace. as Lent approached, i wanted to focus on what was important instead of what was immediate. the problem? i wasn’t really sure how to do that. in my constant hurry, i knew i wasn’t appreciating life’s LITTLE moments. i was missing out on the joys God placed amidst my busy. i was overlooking the LITTLE things.
after reflecting on this, i decided to make a list. i’ve always loved lists! i decided each day i would take a second to notice 10 LITTLE things that made me smile. things i was in the habit of hurrying through. blessings.
to hold myself accountable, each night i emailed my list to close friends and family. picture a black computer screen the size of a dinosaur, with neon green text and a blinking curser. yep. now you’re with me.
when i wrote my first email, i explained my project and titled my list the LITTLE things. i began to look forward to the evenings when i sat down to send my email. at first, it was tough to come up with 10 {and sometimes i wondered why i chose such a high number!}. a week into the project, i found myself noticing the LITTLE things without consciously looking so hard.
10, i realized in time, was the challenge i needed to look beyond the obvious LITTLE things and dig deeper for the others.
but here’s what really surprised me.
the response i got from the friends and family on my email list was completely unexpected. they reply to my email with their own daily LITTLE things lists! acquaintances started to stop me to and from class and tell me a LITTLE thing they noticed.
the LITTLE things, it seemed, contagious.
at the end of Lent, i stopped sending my daily email. in the following days, i received a flood of emails asking, “where are the lists? aren’t you continuing the lists.”
what?
i didn’t really understand this at first. i’d set out with a selfish goal – to settle more into my own days, invite God into more often into my own ordinary, and send the lists out every night to make sure i wouldn’t skip any {i wasn’t know to be the most faithful when it came to Lent goals}.
when i reflected on all of this, it was easy to see that for other people it wasn’t really about MY lists. it was that the daily emails were the reminder for people to make their own lists.
and those lists had come to matter for everyone.
so i got back to it – noticing, listing, and sending the email. every night. and the group of recipients grew.
after grad school, i moved to florida to teach and started to catch wind of this new thing. blogging. as a lover of all things creative and writing, i decided to give it a shot. i immediately thought of the LITTLE things…maybe i could retire my lists and elevate them to a blog!
now, here we are 18 years later! the LITTLE things’ 18th birthday is this month – LENT! my greatest hope is that in sharing my own LITTLE things here on this LITTLE blog, they can encourage you to notice your own, no matter what kind of day you are having.
as a busy mom, i am no longer trying to slow down my day. of course, i would love for that to happen. but in this season, it is impossible. what i can do, and what YOU can do, is make your day FEEL slower by becoming more present with the LITTLE things.
they are always there. sometimes you have to REALLY try hard to find them {like when kids are sick, your job is hard, you are trying to get out the door, make dinner, plan something special, etc.}.
but practice makes perfect. or really, practice makes this more natural, more part of your routine, and the absolute easiest way EVER to boost your joy.
i’ve learned in my years since college that as much as i’d like to believe tomorrow will be easier, less busy, and that i’ll have it more together. it’s never true.
