Kay:

Hey, there Questers, and welcome back. I don’t know if it’s a happy Black Friday, but maybe. It is the day after Thanksgiving, which means today is November 27th and this is episode 235 and our final gratitude episode here to end out our week of Thanksgiving!

Shi:

Your quote today comes from Kurt Vonnegut.

Kay:

Vonn-e-gut. Vonn-e-gut.

Shi:

Jr. and he says, “Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

Kay:

Now, Vonnegut, he’s a novelist. So, he published novels, short story collections, plays, and works of nonfiction. But I couldn’t help, in thinking of a narrative writer and then seeing a quote like this, to think of the movie, “Liar Liar” based on the classic trope of the overworked professional parent who misses the important things, and the little things, and the non-important things with their child and ends up super regretting it by the end of the movie.

Shi:

You know, I couldn’t help but think about Rachel Hollis’ first personal development book, Girl, Wash Your Face, and how she talks about, what I think she calls the butterfly moments. You know what, it actually might be in Jen Sincero’s book, You are a Badass. But either way one of those ladies mentions the butterfly moments of observing her kids laughing at a butterfly, looking at a butterfly, and then a few years later realizing what a precious memory that was, even though it was a mundane and ordinary moment in the afternoon backyard. That sense of presence and awareness realizing that that was one of those big things because it was a little thing…It really bubbled for me. Of course, the country song, “You’re going to miss this, you’re going to want this back…” You know, when you’re in the middle of it, it can be tough, but those little things are so, SO important.

Kay:

Well, it can be really easy when we have our whole life happening to get absorbed in the idea of our life. I’m raising my hand right now, (for those of you watching the video, you can see it). I’m super-duper guilty of this because it is hard not to want to live mentally in your future, or live mentally in your past, or live mentally in the issues you’re having with other people, or live mentally in how your day went. Oftentimes, we end up living so much in our heads that we forget to be in the moment. Things will pass us by and we’re not even aware of the things that do pass us by until we have those moments like the butterflies and we’re five years down the line and saying, “Wow, that one thing on that one afternoon was really impactful.” Could there have been more of that in my life had I slowed down and been a little more aware?

Shi:

Now, I’m sure that none of our listeners do this, but certainly, we see it out in the world that there is obviously the social media syndrome of spending so much time documenting your life and capturing the moments that you forget to actually LIVE them and enjoy them. I think that this is an excellent reminder of “try and find a little bit of harmony when it comes to documenting and capturing moments” and then “living in the moment.” I know we’ve been to a few concerts over the last few years where it’s almost frustrating because someone has their phone up and recording the whole time and you have to wonder how meaningful that experience was for them and how meaningful that memory is later on down the road. If they were out to get kind of that, “look at me lifestyle” capture for their social media, that’s a lot more shallow than feeling fulfilled in the moment from enjoying an incredible immersive experience. So, you know, there’s that harmony between capturing the moment, documenting your experience, and then putting the dang phone down, turning your emails off and really being present where you are, when you are, how you are.

Kay:

Well, oftentimes I think when we pull out that phone, it’s in an effort to remember the big moments when many times we don’t even slow down enough to notice the small moments in the first place. Small moments aren’t just moments with kids. You might be listening to this and not have kids, or your kids might be out of the house. You know, small stuff is the way the light dances on the dust. That’s so pretty if you really take time…

Shi:

That first sip of coffee in the morning.

Kay:

I just felt that go down my throat. Like the breeze that hits you right at the right time. You’re thinking something and the breeze whips your hair and you’re like, “Ooh, that was cool the way that went down.” So, I couldn’t help but think of my daughter right now. We’re teaching her the difference between green, yellow, and red lights. So, for the green light, we say, green means go, go, go and red means stop, and yellow means slow down. So, there are times where we have stoplight moments in our days. There’s time in your day to go, go, go, to get things done. But there’s also time to slow down so that you can see the tree on the side of the road. So, you can let the pedestrian cross the street. Sometimes you have to stop. You have to sleep, you have to shower, you have to eat, you have to stop. So, finding these stoplight moments and being a little bit more intentional about them might help you to implement what Kurt Vonnegut’s advice is here, which is to, “Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things.”

Shi:

All right. That brings you to your last gratitude quest for the week and it is a #LoveTheLittleThings Quest today! So, we want to encourage you to enjoy the little things as if they were big things this black Friday and this Thanksgiving weekend. One little thing that would make a big difference to us and to you would be to head over to kayandshi.com and download the eBook there for you. No sell, no upsell, no craziness – just a little thing that we’ve put together to express our gratitude to you. We know you’ll love it, and we hope you have a fantastic weekend. Are you ready?

Kay and Shi:

Let’s quest!