The small* things

-Why don´t you buy that dress, darling? - The lebanese actress asked me while staring at my glittering image on the mirror.
-I know...it´s gorgeous but...do you know how much it costs?!
-Sure I do, habibty. This is "haute couture"! Did you expect a bargain?! You HAVE to buy it. - She snapped at me, unaware of the fact that some women - women who are not like HER - actually earn their money with their honest work (which does NOT include sleeping their way up the ladder, any ladder) and, therefore, are less inclined to throw dollar notes on the air just because a gorgeous dress happens to cost 2400 dollars.

-Do you have any idea how many lunches with friends and delicious coffees I can pay with the money that dress costs?! - I ended the conversation, letting her dumbfounded, pinching me with her piercing black (as crows) eyes. This girl is unbelievable!, she thought.


There are two ideas which could not - simply COULD NOT - be processed by that lebanese actress:

1. The idea that I was the one who would have to pay for that dress with money that actually came from my dance work and not from a rich "pacha" who covers my expenses in exchange "you know for what".

2. The idea that I would prefer to spend my honest money on lunches with friends and great coffee instead of spending it on a luxury "haute couture" dress (a dress that, for the sake of the painful truth, made me look like a billion dollar queen).

This scene happened in Cairo (Egypt) some years ago but, somehow, it came back to me now. The value of the so called "small things" is haunting me, whispering in my ears, making itself noticed like never before. Most people usually value the expensive, vavavoom stuff (houses, cars, great cloths, impressive titles/jobs, etc) when the things that keep us moving ahead with a smile on our faces are the simplest.
Those things that avoid premature insanity; those things  that allow us to rest our minds and rescue our hearts from life´s trials; those things that feed our souls on a daily basis so that TRULY great things can come out of our hands are "the little ones": a meal with a friend, a warm cup of coffee, a book and a blanket, a kiss, a hug, a word or smile of kindness, a movie, fresh water when we´re thirsty, music, love, a run in the park, feet in the ocean, the sun covering our skin...and the list goes on and on.

Still we keep chasing the ghost(s)...Ah!
(Waking up)