My Life is Wonderful, and It’s the Details That Make It

 So much of life is made or broken in the details.

Think of your favorite website.  Or your favorite restaurant.  Or your favorite birthday.  It’s often about a detail, one moment or one thing that makes the memory come alive.  Sometimes, it’s the service you receive that makes you go back.  Or maybe it’s the quality of work that makes you buy one again.  Or maybe it’s the way she smiled at you that makes you remember that date above all others.  Or maybe it’s the way both of your little boys giggle that puts a smile on your face no matter the mood or the weather.  This is what I mean by “made or broken” in the details.

That’s not to say that we should allow one detail to ruin a day or soil a good deed.  On the contrary, I would offer that it is impossible to look upon something as wholly undesirable when considering the details.  I would offer that there is always some redeeming thing that can turn any dark day into something worth salvaging.  Both extremes represent a choice.  It’s the choice on how to judge our own lives.

In fact, I would offer that the tendency to allow a detail to sully something that is on the whole good, is a function of the Ego.  It is an attempt to undermine happiness, to sabotage enjoyment of life.  Why would we do such a thing to ourselves?  I don’t know.  I personally struggle with it myself, so I don’t have the complete answer.  What I will say is that I believe fear is at the heart of such self-sabotaging actions.  Fear?  Yes, fear.  I believe it is fear of being worthy to experience something good in life.  With one good thing, there exists the potential for others.  And what on Earth would we do if we failed to experience the next good thing?  Or if the next good thing took too long to come around?  Isn’t that something worth fearing?  Or, maybe even worse, what if we aren’t worthy of ever experiencing another good thing in our entire lives?  Isn’t that something worth fearing?  Why not sabotage life so that we never have to live with that uncertainty?  At least that way, we’ll understand, consciously or subconsciously, why life is so miserable.

But life isn’t miserable.  Life is pretty wonderful.  I can sit here and say that not because I’ve had an easy life but because I’ve had a life that is filled with details worth remembering.  There are far more good ones than bad ones.  At least, that’s how I choose to see things.

My life is wonderful, and it’s the details that make it.