The Little Things

The longer I live, the more I realize that the little things matter the most in life. And often, it is often these little things that are the most profound. I have come to find in Malawi that the most profound moments have been the little moments that have occurred during my walks and runs in the morning. I wanted to share a few such moments with you. Halfway through my stay here, I decided to stop taking my camera with me on my walks. It was easy to take a picture of kids and Malawians going about everyday life. But to actually stop and talk with them created a far better lasting memory than a photo.

Running with my iPod one morning, a young boy who didn’t speak much English stopped me and pointed to my ears. He wanted to know what the strange object on my head was. I explained that they were headphones and he repeated the word until he was finally able to pronounce it. I have seen him on 2 other occasions and he smiles, points to his ears, and says “headphones” as if he is so proud to have a new English word in his vocabulary.

While walking to the grocery store yesterday, I passed by a group of kids sitting in the grass playing. I thought I could slip by unnoticed, but a young boy in an oversized red sweatshirt stood up and ran to the edge of the road with the vigor of a child running to the sound of an ice cream truck. He smiled and frantically waved and said hello. Seeing how much joy that kid had in saying hello to me gave me such joy. The little things.

Perhaps my favorite moment came when I ran by a guard who I pass every morning. Not speaking much English, he managed to ask if he could run with me. And so we ran together, not able to say much but our common activity was enough to allow us to have a brief moment of connection. A Malawian man and a “mzungu” running on the dirt road. A short, little moment.

And it is in these “moments” that we can observe and connect. I find we often miss out on these in America because we are always on the go, consumed with ourselves, and bombarded by advertisements to buy this or that instead of trying for free what life has to offer right in front of us. That’s why I love my walks and runs because I can connect with the things I might miss. In Africa, people walk with a destination in mind, as walking is the most common mode of transport, and so walking for the sake of walking is odd. While I was out one morning, a Malawian asked, “You are simply walking back and forth?” My lack of destination confused him. “Yeah,” I thought. “I’m simply walking but I do have a destination in mind-an inward destination. A destination of these little moments.”