Tiny Things 6/17/21

This morning I was chatting with a friend on text and she asked me if I had ever used a dot journal. I told her that I hadn’t but that I was enjoying using this new notepad with little boxes like graph paper. And how I really like it because it lets me write in tiny letters that are super precise and neat. This is a big deal for me as my handwriting is not legible most days.

This got me thinking on tiny things and small adjustments. You know, like how in a yoga pose sometimes it is the micro adjustment that makes the biggest difference.

And I am watching the dogs figure this out right now with the new truck. The space behind our seats is much smaller than the one they had in the SUV and they are having to figure out how to fit comfortably together. There is not room for big adjustments. They are making tiny shifts to allow room for each other - and that is hard to do when you are a full figured doggie.

Earlier today I sat outside before it got to hot and watched the world wake up. I spent time considering a blue iridescent dragonfly sunning itself on the patio. I took time to read an article on the difference between dragonflies and damselflies - determining that indeed, the one I was watching was a dragonfly. I thanked it for eating mosquitos and flies and midges. I told it to reconsider eating bees and spiders as we needed those things. And as I watched and talked with it I saw the tiniest movement out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a black beetle but it was moving in a strange hopping kind of way.,

I switched my attention to my new little visitor and discovered it was actually a teeny tiny black frog - no bigger than the eraser on a pencil. He hopped along into the grass and I lost track of him for a bit. I got down low on the ground and watched for the slightest movement - and then there he was again. I thought about what it might be like to live in such a tiny body. How the road to survival for such a small thing must be enormous. I looked up Texas tiny frogs to see if I could find out more and discovered that my little friend was called a froglet and that it was in the very beginning of its life. I cheered him on as he jumped out of the grass and across the patio. Watching until he disappeared again into the grass on the other side.

Today we are leaving Texas until the fall. We will spend the night just over the border in Oklahoma. Literally getting off the interstate at exit #1. It is a tiny thing but it feels so significant. And it has the promise of cooler temps lifting my spirits in more ways than you can imagine.

Here is to tiny things - and to paying attention - so we don’t miss them when the bigness of life gets overwhelming.