It's The Small Boring Things

I watched the animated movie Up I think about a month ago and found the story cute. Aside from it, one thing I remember most about the movie is when the little kid said that it is the small things, boring things, that you do with people you love that you miss the most. I agree. Even though there is this one quote I read from somewhere that life is measured by the number of times your breath was taken away, it is actually the small things that you do with people that stick most to your memory.

My grandmother, when she was still alive and I was a lot smaller than I am now, used to ask me to step on her legs as some form of massage. I would step on her legs until she feels so relaxed that she would start to doze off. Whenever we had shrimp, crabs or fish for a meal, I remember she would use her hands to eat and I would sit next to her and wait to be handfed. The food always tasted so delicious when she did this.

Whenever my mom would come home from the States, she would ask me to scratch her back until she falls asleep. I remember I always fell asleep before she did.

Before my sister left for the States, she and I used to go the mall and try on the ugliest and gaudiest shoes on display. We would have such a hilarious time doing this.

I remember, when my brother and I were about 4 and 6, we always relished really heavy rains because we would both run out of the house, after securing our dad's permission, to play in the rain. We used to tell our dad, we would like to take a bath in the rain.

So many little things that we do and think that these are unimportant trivial things that happen in everyday life. But when we look back, it seems these memories are the ones that stand out. It is the warmth of these shared moments that give us comfort that even through distance or even death, there were moments in our lives that belonged specially to them. The ordinariness of it just makes these memories extraordinary.

Look into each day and cherish the ordinary boring things. Because these are the things that make life memorable.