Small, Quiet Miracles

The simple joys that matter more than we realize.

A thankful heart hath a continual feast.

—W.J. Cameron

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

—Matthew 18:3

Above: Animating the inanimate with whimsy, kindness, and love.

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A big life isn’t made big by big things.

Rather, it grows because of a thousand small ones stacked gently, quietly, consistently day after day.

Those infinitesimally simple moments that each serve as a beat in the great melody of life.

In the interest of paying attention and fighting against the tyranny of noise, here are a few small things I’m grateful for this year:

• Sitting in the driveway so the song can finish

• When everyone in the room agrees to watch the same movie

• Clean sheets

• Racing raindrops on a car window

• When your checkout line moves fast

• The click of a seatbelt finally snapping in

• When a bartender asks, “the usual?”

• A dog wagging its whole body just because you exist

• Spellcheck

• Finding money in an old coat

• When someone says, “Text me when you get home” and means it

• Opening a new book just to smell the pages

• Waking up in the middle of the night and realizing you still have hours left to sleep

• When a baby grabs your finger and won’t let go

• Cancelled work calls

• Green lights all the way home

• Skipping the last step of stairs just because

• A hug with that extra squeeze

• When autocomplete works

• Crossing something off a list

• Hot soup on cold winter days

• A parking spot right out front

• When someone remembers a story you don’t even remember telling

• Seeing your breath in cold air

• Silence that isn’t empty

• A stranger saying “Bless you”

• The smell of rain in the summer

• When you, dear reader, give me the gift of your time by reading White Noise

These moments are tiny, forgettable—almost nothing.

They are both spectacularly routine and routinely spectacular.

But together, they build a life.

And perhaps the true, quiet miracle is that we get any of them at all.

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Per my about page, White Noise is a work of experimentation. I view it as a sort of thinking aloud, a stress testing of my nascent ideas. Through it, I hope to sharpen my opinions against the whetstone of other people’s feedback, commentary, and input.

If you want to discuss any of the ideas or musings mentioned above or have any books, papers, or links that you think would be interesting to share on a future edition of White Noise, please reach out to me by replying to this email or following me on Twitter X.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom