Be mindful of the little details that life gives you

There are plans that are made out of obligation—mostly responsibilities you have to fulfill—and sometimes, when they go against our will, they seem to become a small burden that makes us focus solely on what we have to do. We practically ignore everything else because we simply want to finish our work and get on with our lives.

And the truth is that life is full of moments like that—when you have to go places just to fulfill a responsibility—and even if you enjoy the work you’re doing, the desire to fulfill that responsibility makes you completely ignore your surroundings—or at least that’s what happens to me sometimes. I focus on my work, and everything else takes a back seat.

This time it wasn’t like that, mainly because something much bigger than me stopped me—and yes, I’m talking about a tree. As I’ve told you before, I love trees in all their forms, but some of them stand out more than others. On this occasion, I was doing some activities, but I had to take a short break to go over to a spectacularly beautiful tree I saw near where I was.

​I don’t know what kind of tree it is, but I know its leaves had been falling a bit—I suppose because of the time of year—and they were turning yellow. They even gave the impression that there was a small yellow carpet on the ground, which, from my perspective, made it look incredibly beautiful and impossible to ignore, so I literally walked over from where I was to get closer to the tree and take a closer look.

​I was really surprised to see that, even though the tree is very sturdy and quite large, it has some parasitic plants on it—but I think this is the first time in my life I’ve seen one that looks like a kind of cactus. And even though it’s a parasite, I actually found it impressive to see a cactus sprouting from the trunk out of nowhere, which makes the tree look even more special than it already is. I actually spent quite a while examining the tree, walking around it, and of course taking some photos.

And of course, I learned a very important lesson from this beautiful tree: no matter where we are, and even if we’re busy, we can take a little time to look around and notice the beautiful things that are definitely there—because yes, they’re always there when we look for them. I have to say that this little stroll through this area full of green and yellow made me very happy, and after that I was able to get back to work feeling even happier than I already was, because in my opinion, these are gifts from my Creator.