A few nights ago, I watched the movie About Time. This film is a romantic comedy-drama about a man named Tim who, at the age of 21, discovers that he has the ability to travel back in time. At first, he uses this special power for minor purposes, such as to fix silly mistakes. Soon though, he attempts to use it for major purposes-– such as to save the lives of his family members-–which ultimately results in his future being drastically changed. His father, who also could travel back in time (as did every man of his family), gave him a piece of advice about how to best utilize this extraordinary ability: he told Tim to relive every single day.
Tim followed his father's advice and had exceptional realizations. When reliving his previous day for a second time, he found that he pushed aside all of the poor things that were happening to him (whether that involved work, his life at home, or any bad luck he was encountering), and began to appreciate all of the beautiful beings, kind doings, and extraordinary happenings that surrounded him – all of which he neglected the first time he experienced that day.
Tim had to relive an entire day in order to notice these little, amazing things in life. Considering his ability to time travel is, unfortunately, not a realistic talent that people like you and I can acquire, what are we supposed to do? Well, since we can only experience each day once, we simply must learn to appreciate these little things on a daily basis. This may be a difficult task for us, especially on our bad days; but we must learn to recognize that along with the negative and disappointing things that are constantly swarming around us each day, we too have beautiful beings, kind doings, and extraordinary happenings swarming around us at the same time. It is noticing these little things in life that can make a big difference in shifting our often negative perspective of each day that we experience.
So, to get us started, here are examples of 10 little things in life that we can take the time to admire – especially on our worst days, when they can easily be overshadowed by other, seemingly more important occurrences.
1. The gorgeous white cloud that softly explodes as you trickle your cream or milk into your daily coffee/tea.
2. When it is the absolute perfect temperature outside.
4. The immediate release of all worries and tension as you sleepily burrow under your blankets after a long day.
7. The warm and cozy feeling that immediately floods throughout your body when you put on clothes that just came out of the dryer.
8. The occasional, beautiful swirl of rainbow colors that appears on the pavement after it rains.
It is the incredible little things such as these that make life absolutely remarkable. Unlike Tim, we cannot live a day for a second time, so we must make every day the best that it can possibly be. To accomplish this, we must seize the day ahead, let go of the things that do not matter, and fall in love with the little moments that collectively make life so wonderful.
