The Sweet Smell of Rotting Garbage

This morning I woke to the sweet smell of rotting garbage wafting into my bedroom. It hasn’t quite turned yet to an awful klunk but if the municipal strike goes on for another day, there will be an overpowering haze of fly infested decay on my pavement.

So with this in mind I brightened up considerably when I saw a link on Gretchen Ruben’s Happiness blog to a site called 1000 Awesome Things (http://1000awesomethings.com/) and a link to this little Utube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_HkH8huuzA .

The video was put together by a youngish student and it is charming. It is a tribute to his girlfriend. He covers things like the smell of rain, absolute perfect silence, bakery smells, high fives with babies and so on. And he says this about his girlfriend that made me pause the video and write it down:

“I know there are specific major things I want in a girlfriend. I have my perfect girl figured out in my head. But Abigail has all these other qualities I never even knew I wanted.” (my italics and underlining)

Why did this hit me right between the eyes? I was reminded of a conversation I had the other day about a young man and his rather strained and not so happy relationship with his girlfriend. As I just love matchmaking I suggested we introduce him to Girl X and was told that she would not be his “type”.

His type indeed…. What the heck do we know …..Hmmm “all the other qualities he doesn’t even know he wants”….

Needless to say, often our preconceived ideas about relationships, our own and others, romantic or otherwise, can cripple what may turn out to be something wonderful.