The Little Things

Little things

It’s the little things that change the world! Right?

I mean don’t get me wrong, peace in Albania would be awesome, an end to the release of greenhouse gases and the entire population actually agreeing to be nice to each other would be massive.  But I don’t think any of them will happen any time soon.  Well maybe peace in Albania…

Watching Big Match 14 and seeing Harlequins demolish the Exeter Chiefs was pretty huge too.  So not that, the little things.

A month or so, the sparrows had managed to demolish their bird feeder.  The perches had broken, just due to massive amounts of use.  The feeder had to be replaced. I’ve had two of the three cylinder jobbies in the office for a while now.  I wasn’t a great fan of them to be fair, and as it turned out, nor were the sparrows.  They had one cylinder for birdseed, one for peanuts and one for fatballs.  Generally, here the birdseed is most popular with black sunflower seeds coming a distant second, but enough to warrant a feeder. I cannibalised the two feeders so that there were two seed feeder tubes, filled it up and put it out.

Almost immediately, NO SPARROWS, yep no sparrows.  Now, lets put that into perspective, quite often when I have had to replace a feeder it’s taken a few days for the sparrows to return.  Yes, most of the birds here are sparrows.

The robin and the dunnocks loved it.  There was absolutely no competition.  Usually, because they are not that good at balancing on the feeder, and just plain outnumbered they only get the discarded food from the floor, and to be fair there is usually plenty of that. But now they could take food directly from the feeder.

Ultimately, that feeder had to go and we ordered another feeder very similar to the old one. It arrived yesterday and I put it out this morning and within an hour the sparrows were back.  We counted sixteen in the privet and on the feeder.  I’ll repeat that, within an hour!

We hadn’t realised how much we missed the sparrows, or to put it another way, how important they were to our wellbeing.  Their return, and it being so prompt, was a massive lift.

Didn’t realise how much till then.

After having the best January ever, February was tough.  Few consultations so no commissions, and then when the consultations did start to come in, none of them seemed to convert.  You stay positive, but as ever, you generally don’t realise how much weight you’re carrying until you offload it.

I’ve been making follow up calls this morning, two consultations should be paid for today, and one potential design client would like to chat, but is in meetings all day to day, so that is scheduled for tomorrow and one potential client has phoned to say thank you so much for my time and my service, but unfortunately due to a health scare will have to rethink what they do now.  That’s understandable.

It’s a numbers game and you continue your service and do the best you can, knowing that the commissions will come in. 

However, because your head is in a better place and you feel good, and you look to make others feel good too and be understanding so you radiate a better energy.

And why is that?

It’s because the little things can and do change your world, and then you can change the world too.

What was it my grandmother used to say? ‘Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves!’

Little things.

Simon Pollard Urban Countryman.