I recently asked God for the grace to notice God more in life’s little things. I’m reminded of the French film Amélie. Amélie likes to notice “the details that no one else sees”.

She cultivates a taste for small pleasures: dipping her hand into sacks of grain… cracking créme brulée with a teaspoon… and skipping stones at St Martin’s Canal.

She looks back at the people in a cinema to see their faces. I wish sometimes to pay attention to these tiny parts of life a bit more; finding joy and appreciation in the almost invisible or unnoticeable parts of our life.
A couple years ago I worked as a tech at Calvary, a palliative care cancer hospital in the Bronx. In my examen one night I thought about the little things I did for the patients at Calvary or for the comfort of their families. Like combing a patient’s hair, rubbing lotion on their feet or legs, taking care in shampooing their hair, replenishing their pitcher with cold water, or even folding their blanket neatly at the foot of their bed. These were little touches that they appreciated. I realise that God worked through that and I found God in those little touches, those tiny things. The grace I asked for had been given in a way I didn’t expect: the little things in which I found God were the little things I was doing!