I realized something this weekend.
A couple of weeks ago, I was just about to start the dishes – music on, suds ready – when I saw one of my favorite wine glasses break before my eyes.
Having no children and being quite young, there are few materialistic possessions in my life I truly love. I had roommates from college until last summer, and when I finally moved to downtown Philadelphia to live on my own for the first time, my initial girl-on-her-own purchase was a beautiful set of 4 wine glasses.
They were not simply any wine glasses. Of course from Anthropologie, these wine glasses were 1) absolutely gorgeous – hand crafted and like nothing I had seen before; 2) expensive!; and 3) irreplaceable. My mom always taught me that even when you’re young, if you live on your own, you find ways to buy the treasures you’ll have your entire life. She was, as always, right.
You can imagine how I felt seeing one crash to the floor. I mean, who has 3 wine glasses and gets away with it? No one. I was beyond devastated.
Then this weekend happened.
I had been dying to get to Anthropologie for a few weeks now, but other things always came up. Finally getting to one, albeit not the one I’d have preferred (despite it being closer, it’s also a lot smaller, not as many home goods, things of that nature) I was not expecting to enjoy my trip there much.
Yet, the sale section proved me completely wrong. Right before my eyes were 2 of my wine glasses. The odds of me being at that Anthro on that day were little to none. The fact that any were left at a store well over a year since I had purchased them was no small feat.
“Are you kidding me? Look!” I exclaimed, pulling on Chris, because it was really all that was needed to be said.
I ended up buying two – because now I truly realize the importance of a backup.
——
A few hours before the phenomenal wine find, I was at Starbucks. It was a miserable day, both raining and cold, and I wanted something to comfort me, as well as warm me up.
While I waited, I saw a woman about fifty feet to my right who was alone. I smiled at her, and she returned the favor.
The barista handed me my hot chocolate (what else can you order that brings you right back to your childhood?) and it didn’t have the cardboard sleeve they typically give you. Immediately, and without me even saying so, the woman who I had smiled at went well out of her way to hand me one.
“Thank you, that was so sweet,” I told her, and she just smiled. How she even noticed I did not have one is beyond me.
It took her, what? 5 seconds to simply hand me the cardboard sleeve – and it honestly made my day.
So, I began to realize – it really is the little things in life.
I think all of this happened because I was actually starting to doubt that it could ever be about the “insignificant”. Everyone is always so focused on jobs, spouses, cities, and money, that we forget to think of the power of smiling at strangers, that luck sometimes is on our side – that we actually can be happy by finding the small joys in life as well.
And because it is hard for me to keep any post completely on the serious, I have included my latest small source of happiness.

Not purchased together, in case that was your question. That’s the beauty of it. This was a really exciting find on my end yesterday.
What little sources of happiness have you found recently?