“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common–this is my symphony.”
William Henry Channing (1810-1884)
Occasionally, we read something that touches us in a way that we will not forget. This quote, posted by a friend, strikes my that way. I fell in love with it the moment I read it. It’s everything I truly believe and wish I had written. I could easily make it my mantra. Print it out and put in on my mirror, so that it’s the first thing I read when I get up in the morning.
A book, flowers, a cold glass of iced tea, on a warm summer afternoon. It truly is the little things that make me content. Taking time to relax and enjoy the moment. To remind myself to cherish now, for once gone I will never get it back.
Sometimes, I believe, we make life much more complicated than it needs to be. I know that I am guilty of that. I spend so much time trying to make things perfect, I don’t have time to enjoy the experience. I want to be the person who takes a minute to, “Let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.”
Aging with Grace 
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