noticing the tiny things, like Elisabeth Tova Bailey did

 I first read Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey when I was as bedridden and drained of energy as she is in the nonfiction book. Ms. Bailey was dealing with an illness that lasted quite awhile and she trained her attention on a snail that had hitchhiked onto a Get Well plant that someone brought to her bedside. She could not read, watch tv, or do much at all due to her illness so her focus on this tiny snail was, for a time, her whole world. 

I could very much identify with that world when I was ill for a few years, lacking energy, in pain all of the time, and having lost so much of my set world. I, too, focused on the tiniest things as I was forced to slow down to a crawl much like the snail.

Now I am so much better, after a long battle. Yet I still try to keep my focus on small things.  I do not want to miss out on loveliness wherever it may be. Recently, the joy I felt upon seeing some 'insignificant' thing led to a significant result.  It began early in the morning as I rushed through my breakfast at such a pace that I did not even take the time to sit at the table. As I stood in front of my cupboard, I read the reminder pinned there to stop at times to absorb these small wonders in an effort to build inner peace, strength, and stability. I had not read the paper on the cupboard for weeks. But did that morning.

Thus, as I rushed along the dirt road by the swampy area, trying to get to work on time, I noticed a large spiderweb on a bush that was lit up so beautifully by the rising sun. I am so grateful for having read the paper. It caused me to have the attitude of observance in mind. I slowed my car way down and smiled as I gazed at the lovely spiderweb. Due to this five second pause, I avoided a bad car accident.  Less than a tenth of a mile down the road, at a bend, someone pulled out of a hidden parking lot and traveled in my lane for a bit before swinging onto the correct side. That is exactly where I would have been had I not stopped to admire the web.

This is a remarkable instance of benefiting from the action of "stopping to smell the roses."  But I have experienced many many other wonderful things by following this habit and feel an inner strength from the totality of the events.

-GG