Have you ever looked up at the sky, and thought… “Well, holy crap-a-moly. This Universe sure is big as big can be.” And then, at that very minute… you begin to feel small. So small. Like Alice-In-Wonderland-all-of-a-sudden-small? And you say to yourself… “I am a tiny little stinking son-of-a-sea-biscuit. Now aren’t I?”
You then walk a few steps, and a small and pesky gnat flies in your nose… and you snort out like a wild boar…. and clap you hands together. Without thinking at all, you crush that little gnat between the applause of your defense? You think to yourself, “Got you! You little tiny stinking son-of-a-sea-biscuit.”
At once, it all rushes around you. So big. So small. All at once? How can this be? And suddenly you feel overwhelmed by the complexity of this existence?
Do you ever…. ever… think such things as this?
Yeah. Me neither. Not ever. That would just be weird.
Okay….. … Well of course I think those things. Just tonight in fact. Before dinner, I took a walk with camera in hand, and just noticed. I like to notice. There is actually a certain peace about taking a walk, all by yourself, and seeing all that is around you.
This was easy tonight. There are a lot of beautiful things in the world. On the flip side, the not-so-beautiful crops up from time to time.
We have a neighbor horse. The humans there, tell me this is a mean horse, and that I should steer clear. But on occasion, I see this horse when I walk up the road from here. Tonight he looked at me as I passed. I asked him why he was so mad about things… why he didn’t like humans so much. He just bobbed his head and turned away.
On the return trip past this same pasture, I slowed down, and paused by the fence. I took a few steps toward the wooden structure, and snapped a shot. I moved a step closer and told him he was beautiful in every way.
He snorted like a wild boar. I am pretty sure he did not have a gnat in his nose either. He started trotting directly toward me. I decided he didn’t look so happy to see me, so I moved a way. Quickly. Like at a sprint. Like a gnat trying to escape the clap of someone’s palms.
I’ll probably try to stop again, and have another chat, sometime soon. Unless my horse-savvy friends tell me not to.
But it hit me. As I scurried from that fence. Maybe gnats are not trying to pester us. Maybe they are just trying to find out why we are so very angry with them, all the time.
I don’t think I will ever applaud the gnat up my nose again.
It is a very big universe. And I am so very small.
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. — Mother Teresa
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. — Vincent Van Gogh
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. — Napoleon Hill