simple little things

I grew up listening to show tunes. my mom, a music theatre major, was always singing and performing, and I am the lucky one who benefited from it all.
I knew why the kids put beans in their ears, and I knew that on a clear day you could see forever. I knew why the princess was bruised from sleeping atop 20 mattresses, and I knew our first dog was named dauntless after that princess's prince.
my mother, a stunning brunette, sang and danced and acted throughout my childhood, and I am forever grateful for my exposure to the world of cole porter and harvey schmidt and rogers and hammerstein.
one of the first 45s I purchased ~ at eight years old ~ was Wouldn't it be Loverly, with Get Me to the Church on Time on the flip side: two of my favorite songs from My Fair Lady.
plenty evenings I sat at a small round table by the side of the stage, sipping a 7-up in a tall narrow glass from a skinny straw, my blond pageboy pulled back by a headband, looking up in awe at my mother, playing another role in another life.

one of the many songs she sang popped into my head tonight, while I was reflecting on my rides these past two days.
I rode up millcreek canyon yesterday, as far as one on a skinny-tired bike can go until more snow melts, and all the joy and happiness that is that canyon came fully back to me. my realization, as I was riding, was that one tends to find happy things in canyons. the rushing water just oozes delight, and every dog I see wiggles happiness from its tail to its nose. and the people, well, they, too, come with an aura of happiness. grumpiness has no place in all that peace and space and beauty.
emigration this morning was full of those same things: peace and space and beauty. those things, and four young deer, bounding lightly across the hillside grasses, and a gentle sunrise timed perfectly with our cresting of the summit.

and this is why my reflections led to the lyrics of the song my mother sang as lizzie, in 110 in the Shade:

simple little things
all I want are
simple little things
all I need is . . .
simple little things
simple little dreams will do

riding brings home to me how very simple my needs truly are.