Sant Dewi, the patron saint of Wales. He is most famous for this: 

‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd.’ 

Translated means: ‘Do the little things in life.’

His message encourages performing small acts of kindness, compassion and that they, along with hard work, will make a significant difference.

I suppose an English equivalent might be ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’ and this too holds true of acts of kindness and compassion etc. 

Doing small things to improve yourself and/or improve the life of another. 

There were several blogs before Christmas about how one small change could improve our outlook. The ones I remember included drinking water before coffee in the morning and being outside and just breathing fresh air for a minute every day. 

And it seems to me that no matter how perfect [!] we are we can always improve in a small way. And so we can become even more perfect [ha!]

My life has been pretty awful over the last few years. And I have sunk into deep melancholy frequently. In an attempt to lift myself from the depths of utter despair, I set myself one task daily; to empty and clean the coffee pot after use. 

I almost wrote, you would be amazed by how hard that task has proved to be; but we are all Moodscopers. We are here BECAUSE we understand just how hard that one small task we set ourselves can be in reality.

On the days I manage to do that one small thing, my day is immediately better. And I can even be found smiling. 

On the days I don’t manage it – often I don’t even notice until the next morning when coffee needs brewing again – but I can see, in reflection, that my ‘failure’ affected everything else too. The kitchen counter tops are not wiped. Things waiting to be put in bins are still waiting. Clothes in the washing machine are still waiting to be hung out to dry. And so on. 

One small task affects everything else in a most profound way.

By taking tiny, tiny steps, I am able to approach the bigger picture and accept I am now alone; Jane is dead and is not coming back; and I no longer have a sister. 

By taking the tiniest of steps I can approach the rim of the abyss in which I find myself and can even – on some days – when the coffee pot has been rinsed – take hold and pull myself up by my finger tips.

And that is a good day. 

On a good day I can even begin to contemplate tentative steps toward some sort of reconciliation with my brother. But I suspect it will take a lot more than a rinsed coffee pot to achieve that level of breakthrough.       

I think Sant Dewi had it right about taking care of the small things. When Celyn the ABD [Amazing Barking Dog] is happy, so am I. Even if the coffee pot has not been rinsed.

CMM

A Moodscope member