When the chips are down, it's the small things that keep us sane. The new life of a budding tree, or a vertically bouncing lamb.  Primroses amongst bluebells, a wet dog in a cheerful coat (with an even wetter, more bedraggled owner), a bird song, children laughing, sunrise... Small things can bring a bit of light.

From opposite sides of the world (and the clock), a good friend and I have shared #smallthings for many, many a moon. Erratically perhaps but each in good faith to bring a smile - a 'transatlantic hug', perhaps. Words or pictures, anything goes.

While Doris Lessing might not have approved of #smallthings (to amuse small minds), Van Gogh was more positive in nothing that 'the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, [it] is a succession of little things that are brought together.'

That, I believe in.