The Little Things

Sometimes it's the little things in life that are the sweetest things of all. All those little blessings that we take for granted or overlook in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

I've been working for a little over a year now with a teenage girl who had severe reading difficulties. Last February, right after we started working, she was so excited because she read an entire book. It was a kindergarten short vowel words book, but it was the first book she'd ever read all by herself before. Very sad.

She's made progress by leaps and bounds since then, and we're now reading Anne of Green Gables. It's a bit of a challenge but she's doing quite well, and to jump from a short vowel book to Anne of Green Gables in just over a year is absolutely astonishing.

So anyhow, back to my little story -- I picked her up from school the other day and the weather was just so beautiful, so warm and sunny and springlike, that when we arrived at the library where we usually hold our tutoring sessions, I spied a large tree out in the middle of the grassy lawn beside the library, and suggested we go sit under that tree today. She was all for it, so we took our book out and read it under this tree.

While she was reading, I sensed someone coming and looked up to see an older woman walking by on the sidewalk nearby. She looked over at us, and smiled in such a way as to imply that it looked like such a nice thing to be curled up under a tree with a good book.

Had it not been for that woman's smile, I would have totally missed how blessed I was, but thanks to her, I was suddenly overcome with just how fortunate I was to be living in that moment. There I sat, on a gorgeous sunny spring day, under a big oak tree, with a child I adored who simply drinks in knowledge, sharing the enchanting joy of a much beloved book.

How much more precious could a moment be? I'm so glad I didn't miss it.