BY JENNIFER MADRIGAL
It’s the little things in life that really define you, and leave an impression on others.
The way the one you love comes across the room to throw their arms around you at the end of a long day; the glass of ice tea that is lovingly set out on a table for you by someone who cares; the way your son walked behind the little boy who wet his pants so that no one would make fun of him; and the friend that drove all day and across two states to hold your hand at your mom’s funeral. It’s those little things that make a life, define a relationship, and show you the depths of a person’s love.
When you truly love a person, you have their heart. Their happiness is your happiness. Their smile makes you smile. Their pain wounds you, too.
It’s the little things, like the way their eyes crinkle in the corner when they really smile, or the connection that you have with them with just a look across the room. It’s the comfort in knowing that that one person truly has your back and is truly your protector.
Fancy gifts and bouquets of flowers are nice, but they are nothing compared with the gift of doing something special for someone that only you know will make their day.
While Love is a choice that one must make every day, it is also something that takes work and effort – and a whole bunch of little things – to build and maintain. The most beautiful garden, planted with all the best soil, seeds and care, will rot and die away without continued tending and water from the gardener. Relationships require tending and consistently choosing that person over yourself and making their happiness your happiness. It may be as simple as making lemon brownies because you know he loves lemons, or going to that Kings game when you are a die-hard Ducks fan, but what remains is the little things that make the ordinary grand.
Someday when your life is ending or the one whom you have loved has passed away, you won’t remember the flowers he bought you from Von’s, or the pearl necklace he spent all his money on. What will warm your heart in the quiet times when you are all alone, is the way she laughed so hard telling a joke that she couldn’t even finish the punch line, or the way he lip-synched and danced to the goofy song in your car to make you laugh.
These are the little things that make a relationship work and blossom and make you feel loved. It’s always been, and will always be, the little things.
