��ѿ��ý

“For me happiness occurs arbitrarily: a moment of eye contact on a bus, where all at once you fall in love; or a frozen second in a park where it’s enough that there are trees in the world.”-Russell Brand.

Beauty is everywhere. Even the word beauty, especially when written in a sophisticated, italic font, brings with it a degree of beatitude, and isn’t it a truly wonderful moment when you notice these etchings of beauty in the world? I’m not talking about the great, dramatic gestures or even the porcelain-faced girl with her inquisitive Bambi-eyes; I mean the small things. Beauty is the way, when your girlfriend, who you love beyond measure, smiles, the left corner of her mouth crinkles slightly in perfect synchronicity with the wrinkling of her nose and eyes; or the way the sun shines on a particular leaf on your favourite tree; or even something simpler: the first bite of buttery toast between sips of sugary tea, when at 6:30am you’re dragged out of your warm bed to get ready for school, which, even though you hate to admit this, you love, and will miss. It’s these small, fleeting fragments of our lives that make us happy, and much, much more. Such tiny moments, which we don’t usually pay much attention to can evoke a vast spectrum of emotions: they can relax us, make us fall in love, make us cringe, or maybe, just maybe, if we’re really, really lucky, they’ll make us realise just how amazing, how imperfectly perfect, how unforgettable and how genuinely extraordinary our ordinary lives are.

I really don’t think those tiny, infractus moments get enough credit. The best example I can think of, follows from a scenario I mentioned earlier. Love. One day, I hope to be fortunate enough to be happily married, ideally with children; I want a beautiful, romantic, well, romance, like the ones you see in films, even if it’s short lived, I want the love and devotion of a long and lasting relationship, but you can’t buy love. Love doesn’t stem from grand gestures, and wont thrive with vast quantities of money being thrown at it. In the words of someone I admire greatly, Tim Minchin, “connection is strengthened, the affection simply grows over time…and love is made more powerful by the ongoing drama of shared experiences and synergy and symbiotic empathy.” Simply put, love isn’t a big bang moment when you first meet someone, it is an amalgamation of all the small moments you share with someone you quite like. Is it really conceivable that if you don’t take the time to notice a person’s more individual aspects, you could ever fall in love with them? Saying someone is stunning or gorgeous means nothing, there are millions of stunning girls in the world, so surely, if you’re ‘in love’ with your girlfriend because she is stunning, you are also in love with however many other women you would perceive to be attractive?! People who are truly in love, notice the smaller things. It is far more wonderful and romantic when a man says “baby, I love the way you play with my arm when we kiss” than when he says “baby, you look great” because it’s attention to the tiny details that no one else would notice, the tiny detail that makes him happy. This, of course, works in reverse, I simply find it easier to write romantic situations in which a man is being attentive. (Probably showing my own need for romantic fulfilment, or something, I don’t know, I’ll psychoanalyse myself one day, I promise!) I digress, of course I digress, it was inevitable, I’m sorry, but the point still very much remains that it is the smaller things in life which lead to the bigger things (I.e. a person’s quirks (small thing) lead to falling in love (big thing, and only sometimes)) and that ultimately, make us happy. They make life more interesting and give you lovely little “ahh” moments which, although I know none of us really take time out in our busy lives to notice, I am in love with the idea of.

I guess, what I’m trying to say, in what is, as always, and what will hopefully, one day, not be, a very vague, wishy washy, all over the place, mess of a way, is that we should all take time to notice those tiny moments in life, step back and admire the quirkiness of the world, appreciate the simple moments, and realise just how lucky we are to be alive to enjoy them. I think that all too often people become fixated on the big finish, the amazing career, or whatever ultimate goal they’ve set themselves, when surely, the best thing about each destination is the journey? The small things that lead to the big thing. Life would be rubbish if it was just a series of big events all begging us to be excited about them, sometimes, we need small things, insignificant things, because when you look at them, they really are rather beautiful.

“But I try to steal other moments. Sometimes I get up very early in the morning and enjoy a quiet house and cup of tea before the craziness begins. Other times, I’ll take a quick walk on the beach. You can find peace in a few minutes.”-Cindy Crawford.