For my friend Steve from Canada

Hello everyone on this fabulous Monday morning!  It is a rainy and cool morning but it’s still fabulous!  Have you ever stopped to take a look at the sun shining through the leaves?  Or just the sun shining on the leaves?  Have you seen the intricate beauty of spider webs as the dew is clinging to them?  And how they sparkle when the sun strikes them like they are covered with hundreds of tiny diamonds?  Have you stopped to listen to the light rattling of leaves as a gentle breeze touches them?  Have you noticed the simple, but energetic, little sparrow hopping around on the sidewalk or street eagerly looking for some tasty morsel of food?  While it’s doing so it is always cheerfully chirping.

We can learn a lot about these little birds that most people never notice or if they do, they just grumble and say ‘it’s just a sparrow, who cares?’.  But the sparrow wakes up in the morning, it doesn’t grumble or complain that it has to go back to work because it’s Monday.  That little sparrow just gets up, sings a bit, then off it goes to look for food.  It doesn’t worry about whether it will find enough food that day.  It just gets out there and starts looking.  It also doesn’t worry about whether it will find lots of nice tasty bugs or if it will be a day of dry seeds.  It also doesn’t complain about having to go out in the rain or hop around in the hot sun.

What about us?  First thing we do is  complain that it’s Monday.  We have to get up early again and go to work, or school, or look after the kids.  We complain about our jobs.  Mumble, grumble, frown, stomp feet, pull hair, bang head on wall.  Do you realize it takes a lot more energy to be negative than it does to be positive.  And really, being positive is so much more fun.  Not only for us, but for those around us.  Why not enter the day with a smile?  Maybe try to whistle something happy.  Okay, whistling might be annoying to some people.  How about quietly humming?

Why not look for things that will make you happy.  Doesn’t have to be something big.  Sometimes little things can make us happy much more quickly.  And they are easier to find.  Like a sunny day.  The things mentioned above.  Today my favorite blue jay returned after a summer away nesting.  I have named him Baxter.  He is quite friendly, although when he first returns in the fall he is a bit more nervous.  He will sit on a nearby branch and call loudly if there are no peanuts outside.  So I go out and give him some.  He is down right away to grab the biggest one of the bunch, then back to the branch to open and eat it.

A simple little thing.  But it brings a smile to my face every time.  But it helps to look for these things.  Otherwise we will never find them.  Walking down the sidewalk I spotted a little “weed” growing in a crack in the cement, with a beautiful little flower.  Talk about a hard place to grow.  But it did.  A simple little thing.  Again, it brought a smile to my face. When we smile, we feel better.  When we smile, others feel better too.  A double benefit.

That’s it for now folks.  I truly hope that you have a fabulous Monday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2019 Steve McLeod.