The Little Things

Sometimes I think in our rush through our lives that we forget to step back and enjoy the little, inconsequential things that make you happy nevertheless. Yesterday and today there were several of those for me.

It started when I dropped my daughter off for one of her appointments. I needed to stop by the grocery store to pick up some things. While waiting to check out I noticed some nice, canvas grocery bags with nice sturdy handles. My daughter and I had been talking about doing away with the whole plastic bag thing for some time. These bags seems to do the trick. When the clerk put my purchases in one of them, I was amazed at how really big they were and how much the held compared to how they looked folded up. The best part was the price. $1.25 each. I got four and was telling Sewmouse about them last night. So now four more will be wending their way East sometime early in the week (probably Tuesday).

I decided to do some weeding in the garden. I'm always looking for ways of removing more weeds and gaining more garden space. Some time ago I planted seven lily bulbs. They had never come up, so I figured they were like the other bulbs I bought from the same place, and just let it go and forgot about them. As I was pulling up blackberry vine roots, I noticed this really weird little plant. I looked closer and realized it had to be one of my lilies. Nothing else is quite as odd looking as new lilies. Then I saw two more. I expect the others will be joining us one of these days.

The next job was watering the garden, though I could have spared myself that chore as it rained last night anyway. About three weeks ago I planted a nice healthy rhubarb root in a nice area out there. Given that it won't really produce until next year, I didn't expect to see anything of it until sometime around mid-summer. Well, there in the middle of the bed were these two tiny, wrinkly little green leaves. As I looked closer I could see barely a shred of red where the stalks would be coming up. My daughter loves rhubarb. It looks as if I got something going here. It made me feel really good. Kinda pathetic if you think of it. I got all excited over two little green wrinkly rhubarb leaves and a little bit of stem.

Today we had another of those, but it didn't pertain to plants. Last week this funny white spot had appeared on the kitchen floor. I didn't know what it was. This morning our roommate was cleaning up something and she scrubbed at it with a scrubber sponge. She called on us to come and look. I had been trying to find something that would clean the kitchen floor, but was worried about buildup I saw around the edge. Well, because of the wax I was using, there had been a steady buildup of wax and dirt over the past year or so. The only thing that was going to get all that buildup off the floor was ammonia and I am the only one who doesn't get sick smelling the fumes, so I made a deal with the two girls...I will do the big work, and you'll finish it off. That worked. As a result we now have a really clean kitchen, the smell is dissipating, and we all feel pretty smug.

None of these things is important. Each by itself or even collectively are really immaterial. But each one made me feel happy. There's a lot to be said for a little happy feeling scattered across your day.