Sometimes the desire to be perfect right now can really get in the way of making the small good choices that create better conditions for the future. The first attitude is self defeating and can be a lot like living in the future. The second is a mindful piece by piece way of going about things that seems to go nowhere big in the moment but is the only thing that creates positive changes.
I wanted to make a photo diary today, and wasn't happy with the photos, and have a cold, and it is raining, so it would be easy to let the need for perfection overcome the small step of writing a diary today, however imperfect. But it is the little choices that add up. The choice of logging into GUS and showing up. The small choice of a green tea instead of a frappucino, the walk instead of the ride, the apple instead of the french fries. Perfection isn't possible, but small choices are not hard to make. Unless they are.
I've realized the last few weeks that not smoking is not about not smoking the next 3000 smokes, it's about not smoking the next one, delaying the next one, and delaying it, for, well, forever.
Like small choices, it's also sometimes the details that make life worthwhile, or at least bring warmth and poetry into the mundane. The kids in the street this morning break dancing to MC Hammer.
The free bookshelves at my hostel.
The pair of lions at the front door that guard us while we sleep.
The mural that no one sees on the wall in the lobby.
The cheerful floor tiles.
As vivid as these things are when a camera focuses on them, when mixed in with the grime and shabbiness of everyday urban life, they seem to go unnoticed. They only have meaning when you look at them. Small choices only work when you make them.
GUS is one of those things, here daily, sliding down the right hand column of Kos, rarely making big splashes. It's been here for three years now, quietly helping folks make the small choices that add up. Thanks GUS.