One of the many revelations in my life with Maria is her great passion for the small things, the little things, in life. She sees things I never see and feels things I never felt, and our love for one another has opened up my heart and soul in many ways that amaze and nourish me.
I am also beginning to see the small things; Maria and my photography have helped spur those processes along and enrich every part of my life.
Maria rarely misses a little thing.
She will notice the color of cheese, the call of a raven, a plant sprouting a flower, a cactus growing taller, an owl in a tree, turkey vultures riding the wind, geese heading south, mushrooms in the woods, trees in the forest, bugs drowning in a water tank, a sheep calling to its mother, squash and potato in her vegetable garden, crows calling to her, a Dahlia blooming, spiders that need re-homing, not killing; a bud on a succulent, the smell of food, a potholder idea, every flower in her flower gardens, Fate happily running around the sheep, a moth’s wing in the wood pile, a ewe nuzzling her hand and face, the moon and stars in the sky, the soft bray of a donkey.
Sometimes this tires me out; I can’t keep up and wonder about many things. But mainly, it lifts me right up and pulls me into her world.
When I tell Maria I love hearing her talk about the little things she loves, she is always surprised and tells me she always loved the little things of life, but no one would take her seriously. When I tell her I take her seriously, she cries and says thank you.
I can’t help but think of St. Terese writing to her Mother Superior so long ago: “So you see, Mother, what a tiny soul I am, and I can only offer tiny things to God. These little sacrifices bring great peace of soul, but I often let the chance of making them slip by…” in her book,” The Story Of A Soul.”
I don’t think of Maria as a saint, but like St. Therese, she is humble, and life is an eternal discovery for her.
Life has distracted me for so many years it’s sometimes hard for me to see what’s under my nose. She has a purity of awareness that has survived life’s distractions.
For her, life is an eternal discovery. She loves being alive and living her life; she sees the world anew every day. Nothing is too small for her to see and wonder at its existence.
What does it mean to love life? I think it means loving all of it and seeing the little things and the big things.
Like too many esp. men you often default to the abstract. The Merton et al. references involve the abstract which is generalized ideas but holds little excitement, beauty, emotion; just cliche really, causing higher uncertainty, less confidence in the meaning. It becomes colder, intellectual, philosophical. The abstract is a way to promote one’s narcissism. It’s boring.
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But the concrete examples you listed of what Maria noticed lets the reader see the specific, more joyous life, less cliche and encourages a warm heart.
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Most people don’t care about your 40 days in the desert reading Merton. Deadly.
Victor, I’m so glad Maria has helped you see life’s specific and more joyous things; you seem to have left them behind in your message.
I’m not seeing the warm heart or joyous life Maria encouraged in you, and I’m sorry, but I don’t argue my work with hostile strangers online. I don’t want to spend a minute of my life doing that. I pity people who do.
And yes, you got me. I am a man; you are a perceptive devil. I often think like one; God help me.
I like your thought about Merton, as clumsy and poorly written as it was. Talk about cold and intellectual. Wow. Your comments are true and are something to think about.
He does have a weakness in that way, although he has many brilliant strengths in my mind.
He is definitely cold (you forgot angry) and philosophical at times, and I’m not sure why this makes him of little or no value. Have you ever read about Plato or Thomas Aquinas? Religious philosophers were not like the Muppets.
Must everyone think like you? He is also a genius and a wonderful writer, and he influenced me and many others. How many best-selling books do you have on Amazon? My “deadly” days (365 Days)in the desert with Merton was my best and one of my best-selling books. More than 20 years later, people are still buying it; bless them.
This is one of the reasons I love Maria, who also loves much of Merton’s writing. She is not cold, philosophical, or intellectual. I don’t think you could possibly know what most people care about or don’t care about in my life or anyone else’s. Do you speak for everyone in the world? It makes your smart post seem arrogant and delusional and easy to dismiss. You could have made your interesting point without being snotty. Tsk.
Best J.
“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
—Leo Tolstoy
Nice quote Florence, thanks..
I loved ALL of today’s comments. They were sweet and they were tart.
Like enjoying different pickles.
Yum, JoyDawn
Maria is at one with nature..and all creatures great and small. I delight in your description of her. You capture it well. I also enjoy the differences in your blogs. Stay the course, Jon.
I researched about 5 years ago who sold the most poetry; a young woman, a teenage girl, who wrote poems about learning how to use makeup, and talking and evoking fantasies about boys. She was the highest paid poet at the time (other than our great rappers). So, when you say you are a best selling author, you perhaps imply you are a good writer. But like this teenager, you were writing about something the audience goes weak in the knees about, dogs, something we all love and most would spend money for. Any hinted implication that you are a Dickens or other great wordsmith only indicates some of your other traits.
Humility would be another trait for you to try on awhile.
You’re, one is, at your artistic best, mostly, when you emphasize the concrete, I agree.