Small Things

Yesterday, I decided I needed something to contemplate, some tiny thing. Some obscure thing that didn’t even know I was looking. Some thing that could use a good writing about, even though most folks wouldn’t give it a second glance. The reason was simple. At this moment, my life feels full of big things, overwhelming things. Life and death, that sort of stuff. It’s possible to deal with it, of course. But when it comes at you one after another, and that’s all you get, after a while you begin to feel like a cartoon character being flattened by every passing car. Pop up, whap! Pop up, whap!

One of the first things I noticed was one of mama cat’s kittens asleep in the southern flowerbed by the catmint walker low. The kitten was stretched out there in that morning sun with it’s back against a large rock, that was probably warm, and its head was close to the catmint. I hope it was having nice dreams. A little bit later a flock of field sparrows descended on the sumac, which grows just opposite the catmint, to eat the berries. They flitted around in the tree, turned over leaves on the ground, and ate what looked to be a pretty good meal. The kitten by the catmint was gone by then.

That was good stuff to watch, cats, birds, catmint, a sumac. I even went outside to stand and look at the sumac leaves on the ground and the shadows cast by the tree’s trunks. The shadows made a nice pattern on the ground covered by multicolored leaves, with berries beneath, no doubt, too small for me to see, but good pickin’s for a field sparrow. It was there, standing in the southern exposure, that I could see why the kitten decided to nap in the dirt by the catmint. The house blocked the breeze, there was sun, and it was warm. Plus, there was nary a hint of bad news.