Of Trivial Matters..

A friend had recently mentioned in passing conversation that in the big scheme of life, little things are not more than incidental.

It’s true I suppose. There were things that I bothered about to no end, things that were my primary preoccupation at various points of time, things that made me cringe with angst and things that gave me many sleepless nights. And they ceased to be a matter of concern very shortly afterwards. I could look back at them and laugh at my own silliness.

But even though I accept that, I also realize that it is the immediate outcomes that are of significance in the present time. They make us happy or unhappy, agitated or tranquil, content or perturbed. Reflecting back might make us scoff at the pointlessness of the energy we wasted fretting about them. But it does not take us back to that moment and it does not undo our emotions of the moments gone past.

And therefore as profound as the thought might be – of letting the small things be – I find it extremely tough to live by it. Impatience still gets the better of me, ambition still makes me want more than I get and my dreams still make it hard for me to accept failure. The little things might not affect the big picture, but they do affect the picture’s little pieces. And isn’t it those pieces that make up existence?