The power of low expectations and the joy of “small mercies”:

“I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate goods.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

via BrainPickings

If I’m expecting the universe to grant me a great parking space or extravagant prosperity or fairy tale love, I better get used to disappointment. 

The universe is busy spinning galaxies into infinity and keeping my atoms together so I can go on being me for a little while longer.

But wonders abound, and I just need to see and be grateful for the small joys I continually stumble across every day. 

I’m thankful for a car to park anywhere, my average middle-class comfortable prosperity, and my sweet, everyday-joy kind of love.

Small mercies and authentic wonders can fill a day — and a life’s worth of days — with the best the universe has to offer.