A little Pearl of Wisdom

Pandemics come and go...albeit they don’t go quick enough. As I write this, I like you am tucked safely away inside my home. Yes, tucked away with three teenagers who go from not talking to me to all talking at once, or from getting along to battling it out. Yes, I am tucked away with a spouse who has heard all my jokes, put up will all my sighs of boredom, and who, I fear, will put a pillow over my face one night “to protect me from the Coronavirus.” And yes, I have a dog who follows me everywhere believing I will dispense snacks every time she pats me with her large paws and now way overgrown nails. Pandemics come and go...albeit not quick enough for my sanity. This one seems personal. 

Part of my daily sanity ritual is to read from the various blogs and devotional writers I have signed up for. Seth Godin is one such person (sign up for Seth’s Blog). He writes daily on the intersection of life and business. Today he offered this pearl of wisdom:

Enough little things. We rarely have complete control over the big issues. But the way we interact with each other, the small kindnesses, the extra effort–it adds up. One after another, day by day. It might be enough to change someone’s day. And then the ripple continues.

Yes, I am locked away with four people I adore and love. Yes, I had the privilege of being loved unconditionally from an animal who trusts I will respond in kind. Yes, I have many little things all around me that remind me of the abundance of life that God has given me. 

​While I have zero control over a virus that is hellbent on doing as much damage to this creation as it possibly can, I do have control over the way I love and respond to those I love. It’s those little things.

Yes, I can be there to mitigate a fight between siblings and use the time they refuse to talk to me for some “personal reflection time.”

Yes, I can look online or in the many books in my library to find new jokes to tell or practice self-reflection without the need of attention.

Yes, I can give my dog love, snacks, and scratches behind her ear anytime she wants because it’s those little things that mean the world to her. And to me.

​Maybe, yes, maybe my dog and I can live harmoniously in our quarantine compound.

And who knows, maybe this pandemic will pass and  I will wake up not with a pillow over my face but with a kiss from my wife’s warmth and tenderness.  It’s the little things in life.

Seth Godin. Seth’s Blog April 6, 2020. https://seths.blog/2020/04/enough-little-things/