Over the last couple years I’ve been enjoying pens. It started with comparing various inexpensive disposable pens to see which was more reliable (go Bic Round Stick!). Then I picked up a few rollerball and gel pens. They’re so smooth, my beloved Zebra Sarasa never smears, and I adore the vibrant red of my Uniball Signo 207. It’s a thing of beauty.

In more recent months I’ve jumped a little further down the rabbit hole of pens. I got a couple Uniball Jetstreams for Christmas, and then I took the plunge and got a fountain pen. Oh, there are so many ink varieties available to me now! The one I’m currently using is black with little gold sparkles in it! I discovered several online communities focused on pens. That’s actually been rather comforting: the people there make me look pretty normal in comparison. And I discovered the delightfully eccentric videos from Peter Draws on Youtube. Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone sniff a pen just to see how it smells before.

Why? Why do I do this? Why focus on such a ridiculously insignificant part of my life rather than just use that annoyingly cheap Bic which has never let me down?

In part, just because I’m a geek. I like getting obsessively into things. Pens are my current obsession. In the past it’s been computers, web browsers, Star Wars, D&D, ninjutsu (that one didn’t last; turns out it requires exercise), shaving, and others. Like a hobby, they give me some recreation.

But it’s a bit more than that (or so I tell myself). By focusing a bit on something so mundane as how a pen feels as is slides across a sheet of paper (and it can feel sooooooo good), I find appreciation for the little moments of goodness in my life. And as I see the goodness in something small like this, it helps me see the goodness all around me. Creation is beautiful, and our human work is also often beautiful. I don’t stop and appreciate the goodness around me often enough.

And, by choosing to do something simple the best way I can, it feels like I’m making the world just a tiny bit more awesome. Seriously. The world is a better place today thanks to the pen I chose, and how beautifully it wrote out my task list for the day. Who knew?!

It calls to mind the “little way” of St. Therese of Lisieux. Doing little things with great love leads us to holiness. For me, my pens are like that. God is the source of all love, beauty, and goodness. As I choose to appreciate the beauty around me, I open my heart more to the creator of that beauty. I see and experience his goodness all around me, even in these little things. It reminds me that he loves me.

So, what did you do, no matter how small, to make the world more awesome today?