What I Know To Be True

Sometimes when we try to reflect on the big things in life, we find ourselves musing on the little things instead. Sometimes I think that's because we can't wrap our heads around the big stuff, and sometimes I think that's because it turns out it's the little stuff that really matters int he end.

A few nights ago, sitting alone in my private puddle of light, surrounded by the darkness of wildly beautiful land, I tried to think about things like the nature of faith, the origin of the human soul, and the importance of kindness.

Instead, I took a side trip down a less shadowy path, and started thinking about what I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be true. (I did, for a brief time, play with the idea that they are only true for ME, and what was truth anyway... but then I climbed firmly back into the narrow strip of light on the outskirts of my mind...)

Here is what I believe to be true:

Vinegar and baking soda mixed together makes a splendid and rather exciting mess.

Anything you grow yourself tastes better than anything you can buy, and dirt under your fingernails is a hopeful thing.

It is a good idea to wear comfortable shoes.

The stuff you need to carry in your wallet or purse will grow to fit the size of your wallet or purse.

Hitting your funny bone is not funny.

Aspirin actually works.

People do win the lottery, but you probably won't.

Anger is often returned.

You can still lose no matter how hard you try, and you can sometimes win even if you didn't.

Mice really are as afraid of you as you are of them, but they don't think about it.

Summer will eventually end, and so will winter, unless the world as we know it ends first, in which case it doesn't really matter.

There will always be someone better off, and worse off, than you.

Sometimes birds chase cats, and not the other way around.

A watched pot DOES boil eventually; it just seems like forever if you're really hungry and waiting to put the spaghetti in.

When it's a mtter of life or death, most of us will choose life, and there isn't much compromise.

Someone else liked the book you just threw down in disgust, or the song you just switched from on the radio, or the piece of art that made your brain ache.

There is never a real "never", and always an "always except".

Stubbing your toe hurts.

A dog can save a man (or a woman), and a man (or a woman, or sometimes even a child) can save a dog.

What we are afraid of in the shadows of ourselves is often worse than what really exists in the shadows outside ourselves.

Common sense is uncommon, real love is rare, and you are not alone in the universe because you just read these words, and you didn't write them.