Find Life In The Small Things

We are on the precipice of the busiest time of the year, which ironically is also supposed to be the happiest time of the year…holiday season. No longer just Christmas, holiday season encompasses the pre-party, aka Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then the final wrap up with the New Year’s Eve bash. Some may or may not include Valentine’s Day in this line up of holiday events. Bottom line…we are in for three to four months of exhaustion on top of everything else that makes up our lives like work, school, and the all too long to-do-lists.

A couple of holiday seasons ago something marvelous and rare happened. The sort of unique and fleeting moment that only comes once in a lifetime. Desperate to indulge in some much needed me-time, given the course load and overall exhaustion of a semester at school, I chose to spend the morning sitting in my parent’s sunroom reading. Cuddled up on our large sofa, a steady fire warming my skin, hot apple cider within reaching distance, my ears heard a sound long before my eyes caught sight of its presence. A rustling noise, the faint sound of softness colliding against itself, then a slight tapping ever so gently made its way into my senses.

Curiosity led me to look and it was then that my eyes saw what my ears had first heard. Outside, separated only be a glass door, lay a brilliant cardinal perched ever so comfortably on the back of one of our out-door chairs. 

Its black face a deep contrast to the flaming red feathers that fluttered as he moved. I couldn’t help but be amused at the way his dark petite eyes seemed to for a moment find mine. I remember I stopped breathing, moving, afraid that I might make it fly away. His head turned ever so slightly as if I was the one who had surprised him. He lowered his head slightly, his beak tapping the woven black wood of the chair, digging through the fresh fallen snow, only to look back up at me once more. His head lowered once again, but this time as if acknowledging me, as if it was an intimate greeting between old friends. A quiet stillness filled the moment, a soft blissful peace.

In that simple moment curled up by the fire, glancing out into the backyard of white snow, I caught sight of something truly and genuinely magnificent. I had found life in the smallest of things.

I watched on as the cardinal lifted its crimson wings and departed from my side. A deep smile fell over my face at the knowledge that I had been witness to something beautiful, something genuine, real, bona-fide, authentic. It was a once in a lifetime probably never to be repeated moment in my life. 

The symbol of the cardinal follows me no matter where my feet may take me. From that moment to this one, I continue to find that same transcending stillness and peace whenever I see the image of a cardinal. It has become a gentle reminder of rare moments of authenticity, a sweet urging whisper to take a breath, to stop, to look, to find life in the small things.

-Authentically Me