The path of small ordinary joys

Neither influencer nor insignificant, I wander through my life, hungry for affection, lacking meaning, relying on wandering. Popularity is too little for me — you have to enter contests that you are sure to lose. To grand utopias, I respond with my little journey, made of thousands of small smiles, patience, and the long passage of time, like nature. Small joys without glory, they go unnoticed. Their benefits are not always seen. I will be fulfilled without you seeing me, you anonymous one who felt my warm breath. I saw its trace on your happy face, you who don’t know me. We never see the fine work of small deeds, small smiles, on the great canvas of one’s life; to enter grand dreams, you have to sacrifice it. Watching for a moment of grace, seeking an opportunity to share my solitude, I settle for the present because I have no future. The little train goes far because it is steady and constant. It’s not a train entering a station, but a rhythm that gives time — time to look, to live, and to pick up Félix’s small joys in the ditch. No need to search at the antipodes, here are two that would have vanished without my intervention. 

The Warmth of Chocolate 

Time does not rush me. In the convenience store, I lick the coffee window, lacking stimulation. My attention turns to a group of teenagers. Even calm, they stand out, fidgeting before the hot chocolate. At that precise moment, my intuition whispers: “Would you like some?” Surprised but unafraid, they candidly say yes. A free gesture, dissipated in a minute, perhaps forever engraved in their memory, ready to serve a conviction. 

There’s Someone Worse Off Than You 

At the end of the hallway, a man in the doctor’s waiting room — I approach and his swollen face, his bandages become clear. A woman and a man accompany him. Our eyes meet and I feel deep sadness. The man suffers all the more because he sees himself disfigured. Approaching, I hand him a photo of myself from just a few months ago. You see my swollen face, unrecognizable. “In some time, it won’t show anymore, be patient.” And joy spreads immediately in the sad trio. Accumulate small joys and forget the big ones, which are too rare and ungrateful. The small ones are built in a flash — a smile, an outstretched hand, a gesture. 

— Jacques Gagnon, engineer, CEO of Imagem