Sometimes just the smallest little thing, lasting just a minute or two, can fill a grey scale world with brilliant colour.
I am in the midst of the “great cataract misadventure”, a very disruptive experience, bleeding into everyday life. Attila is feeling it too. It certainly has made things seem dull and grey.
But a day or so ago, one of the small little things was sent to us by the universe.
Attila and I walk two miles every day. We must walk on the roadway for much of our walk, there is no other choice, there are no sidewalks, there are ditches on either side of the road. Occasionally a passing car will unnecessarily force us off the road, so we try to time ourselves to be near a driveway as vehicles pass by us, so that we can easily move out of the way. This is a lot harder to navigate in the winter months.
Attila is an affable soul. If vehicles give us room to safely stay single file on the road, Attila waves a a thank you to them, I do too when we are together. School buses always give us enough room for safety, always, so Attila always waves thank you to the school bus drivers, and I always wave to them as well, even when I am walking alone.
When we were at the grocery store the other day, I noticed a woman looking at me, so I smiled at her. She approached us to ask if we weren’t the people she has seen walking every day on XXX road? “That’s us,” I said. We had a friendly little chat, she is one of “our” bus drivers, someone we wave at every day.
How nice was that!
Worldly
Weather
24°C
Date: 4:00 PM EDT Sunday 26 July 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.1 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 23.6°C
Dew point: 19.7°C
Humidity: 79%
Wind: S 21 km/h
Humidex: 31
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.”
Mark Twain
1835 – 1910
🙂 Maggie, thanks for sharing that. It is, indeed, the little things.
You are welcome Wendy, it is a pleasure to share such a treasure!
Attila and I smile and greet everyone we encounter on our walks. Some people ignore us, some look distressed at being spoken to, some respond with annoyance, and that is OK. Everyone has their challenges, you don’t know what people are going through.
For us it is lovely when the greeting is returned.
We both feel that a friendly greeting makes for a gentler, kinder world. And you don’t know if the stranger you pass on the street needs a smile. Or if your greeting is the only eye contact and human interaction in that person’s day. We are lucky enough to live in a place where our walks take us through areas safe enough to risk smiling and making eye contact.
Often, when we haven’t been out for a few days, and we meet someone on the street, that we have greeted many times, they ask where we have been. Other times people we greet regularly seem to be missing for days, weeks, and we wonder if they are OK, so far they have been!