The Grand in Small. by Patresa Hartman

We had breakfast for dinner tonight. It is the second night this week we have reversed our night with our day, our morning bread with our evening snack. And there is something liberating about it. We might as well have worn our underpants out and our top hats in.

I like the periodic reversal. I like to occasionally flip flop small details of my existence and see what the world looks like from its opposite end. Small -- such small little shake ups -- waves ripple big into my whole day, my whole week, and I am walking lighter.

My husband and I are currently flip flopping our living space. We (that is to say, the professionals we hired) have ripped down a heavy plastered wall, uprooted green linoleum, and laid fresh strips of hard wood. When the floors are sanded and varnished, when they are dry and the light fixtures replaced, when we have painted over the current jade with a dark burnt sienna, we will make the piano room the living room and the living room the piano room.

Already the transformation is huge. I descend the steps from our attic bedroom in the mornings and it is an early morning adventure. It takes at least 30 seconds to re-remember where I am and that what has happened was on purpose.

The details are small, and we are delighted. We are delighted with the new light switches; we are delighted with the hole cut for the new ceiling fan; we are delighted with the paint samples fanned out on the kitchen counter. Such tiny steps. Small ripples.

I am grateful for the grand power of small changes.