Monday 29 January 2018

The Smallest of the Small Things.




Today, I had to do a lot of very, very ordinary things. I did all those horrid jobs that I had been putting off, like getting all the final numbers for my tax return. I am the Queen of the Procrastinators. They should give me a special crown. I read all those articles about how to get things done, and obviously because I am reading about getting things done instead of getting things done I never get anything done. I have lately embarked on a classic mid-life crisis self-improvement programme. I’m really getting the trick of turning negative thoughts into positive thoughts and facing one’s human fears and all that malarkey. And yet I still seem incapable of getting off my procrastinating throne. This is a fairly melancholy reflection when I’m about to be fifty-one. Fifty-one. Surely I should be a grown-up by now?

Of course, the job that I dreaded most turned out to be perfectly easy and fairly painless. I got it done in about half an hour. I’d spend a month worrying about it and putting it off and then I took half an hour to do it.  The tax return had hovered over me like an evil spirit and then - poof! - it was gone. All that fuss, all that angst, and in the end it was just a bit of adding up. 

Anything to do with money makes me feel incredibly stupid and inadequate. I think of all the people out there who appear to understand it and who keep notes about incomings and outgoings and who are responsible about their bank statements. I just close my eyes every time it comes to paying the hay bill. So I dreaded the tax return like you dread the dentist. And then, it wasn’t so scary after all. My venture into self-publishing also turned out to bring in more than I had thought. Actual humans are out there buying my actual books, despite the fact that I have no talent for self-promotion and a morbid British fear of anything that might look like blowing one’s own trumpet. The hay bill will be paid for another winter.

The farrier came, which was the lovely part of the day. We stood outside in the bitter wind and the glancing sunshine and spoke about horses and hooves. The red mare, who does not need to be held for the farrier, whom she loves, stood immaculately, entirely untethered, and went into her little dreamy trance. I feel ridiculously proud when she does this. What a treat she must be for the farrier, I think, every single time. I don’t care about the mud and the cold and the hay bill, because I can watch this magnificent horse being her magnificent self, beaming her Zen waves of peace into a grateful world.

A friend came to help me pick up the piles of dung and we collected crap and talked about the meaning of life and laughed quite a lot.

And then I went home and wrote 2709 words of my new secret project.


It was the most unremarkable, most ordinary of days. I live a very small and ordinary life. I had rather stopped doing the blog because the smallness and the ordinariness seemed too absurdly unimportant to write down. Those poor Dear Readers, I thought. I must wait until I’ve got something big to say. The months and weeks went by. The Big remained elusive.


I’m returning now to the small. I like recording the tiny joys that nestle in the ordinary. My ambitions have changed so much as I’ve got older that now I think if I can make one person laugh on one day, then that day is not wasted. The farrier laughed, and my friend with the dung laughed, and the red mare would have laughed if she could. I bloody well got my tax return together. I wrote words which until this morning did not exist. 

Don’t write a day off, I think to myself, merely because it did not have anything vast or meaningful in it. I start to believe that finding meaning in the very, very small may be the secret to life. 

14 comments:

  1. The smallest of things in life are the best things. I have followed your blog for years and although I do not often comment I always enjoy reading it. I like reading about the little things, the ferrier and your beautiful horse, your secret project and your changing ambitions. I love Scotland and horses but I live on the East Coast of the USA and have no horses so it is fun for me to read about your experiences.

    I will be here reading whatever you write. Have a great day and thank you for always making me smile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

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      Isiyku Abdulahi
      My ex-boyfriend dumped me one week ago after I accused him of seeing someone else and insulting him. I want him back in my life but he refuse to have any contact with me. I was so confuse and don’t know what to do, so I reach to the Internet for help and I saw a testimony of how a spell caster help them to get their ex back so I contact the spell caster and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2 days that my ex will return to me and to my greatest surprise the third day my ex came knocking on my door and beg for forgiveness. I am so happy that my love is back again and not only that, we are about to get married. Once again thank you Dr Believe. You are truly talented and gifted.He is the only answer. He can be of great help and I will not stop talking about him because he is a wonderful man. Contact this great love spell caster for your relationship or marriage problem to be solved today via email: believelovespelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +19713839183




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  2. I applaud and reiterate what Elizabeth said above. Consider that we (your fans/audience/followers) think that anything you write, big or small, is well worth reading. At least I do. Please keep on going, day to day, including us in your life. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think I'm going to share the philosophy of doing one job at least - I'll join you in the procrastination stakes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's the great small things you write that make a difference when I read them, thank you x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I totally agree that including us in your life is a very special kind of sharing. I love all that you write no matter if big or small or anything in between.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm afraid I'm almost sixty-one and procrastinating as much as ever. That probably does not make you feel better, does it? A tip I've read that I sometimes use is to "eat the frog first" which sounds terrible but only means if you have several things to do, do the hardest one first and get it out of the way.

    I like your everyday small things and fully believe that the small things ARE life; they contain all the love and heart and quiet satisfaction that is life. But I often wonder if that's just the introvert in me coming out :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Looking round the world, the "ordinary" life, routine and humdrum as it may appear, is probably the envy of millions of people and should be celbrated. Thank you for reminding us the small things can be the best - 2 Cavaliers and a new log burner in my case!

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