Miniscule purple wildflowers have begun to appear on both sides of our long country driveway. I was pointing these out to my granddaughter as we walked to school but her attention was drawn to a worm that was struggling to cross the dry dirt of a tire track. She gently rescued it and set it into some wet grass out of harm’s way.
With sheep on one side and cows and horses on the other, we’re fortunate to live in such a pastoral setting. The spring sunshine and familiar animal sounds are a welcome distraction from the political and environmental disasters that confront us on a daily basis.
After leaving her at school, I continued walking to our local coffee shop, thinking I’d sit awhile with a cup and try to pencil out some thoughts for this post. I found myself making a list of all the news topics that we’ve been inundated with recently—everything from teen suicide to bank failures—a long (and overwhelming) list. I stopped.
Instead, I thought about two little things that happened this past week. Bearing in mind a saying I’d heard from a friend (“there’s a lid for every kettle”), I’d been hoping to find one for an old Farberware pot that lingered in the back of a kitchen cupboard. A while back, I’d traced the circumference of the pot on a piece of paper and tucked it into my purse. On a fool’s errand, I’d been checking local thrift store bins looking for that characteristic black knob, coming up empty each time. Thanks to a suggestion from a thrift store volunteer, I was able to find an authentic lid on eBay from a woman in Florida. She even took the trouble to cover the knob with a cut-out section from an egg carton to protect it during shipping.
While at one of the thrift stores, I picked up a bright blue sparkly leotard for my granddaughter who is taking a class at the local gymnastics center. Removing it from the bag at home, I noticed it smelled exceptionally strong of fabric softener. What to do? Siri directed me to some tips posted online and now the scent is almost entirely gone.
At a time when it’s easy to feel so helpless in the face of big things, it’s nice to know there are folks out there to help us with the small stuff.
Brenda Bellinger 