Life doesn't always require grand gestures. Sometimes it's a greeting card saved for just the right moment. A text that simply asks “how are you doing today?” A heart emoji. A voicemail.
This week I mailed my sister a card that said, You're My Person. I don't even remember exactly what I wrote inside. Probably something about sharing life's good days and the hard ones, too. A little background. A few months ago they found a bug on the wall. Took a pic and looked it up … termite! An exterminator put up a plastic bag in the corner of the wall and the ceiling and every day another termite.
While the Bug Man was there, he noticed a carpenter ant. And there is never just one. Apparently there was a leak around their chimney after it had been repaired following a lightening strike a couple of years ago. Millions men and workers and experts and continued bad news since.
A day later my phone buzzed with a photo of the card and one little ❤️. Then came a voicemail. She told me she had been having one of those days when getting dressed felt like too much work. She didn't want to go outside. She didn't even want to cook. Then my card arrived.
It didn't solve any of her problems. It didn't make anything magically better. But for a little while, it reminded her that she wasn't carrying them alone.
On Monday I texted my friend Linda, (who works the WLLO Office each week) and casually asked how her weekend was. Not so good. Her little dog was attacked by a much larger dog while they were walking on Cannon Beach. The big dog WAS leashed but pulled free, dragging his leash. Scooby is an 8 lb love bug and usually joins our Zoom meetings. He was mauled horribly with a vet visit every other day. Currently he is in the hospital.
Scooby is healing slowly and so is Linda. She told me she prefers texting because talking still brings tears. But having someone ask each day...helps.
It struck me that none of these things took more than a minute. A card. A text. A voicemail.
Just a reminder that someone is thinking about you.
We sometimes wait until we have enough time to do something meaningful. Maybe meaningful is usually much smaller than we imagine. Maybe the tiny things are the big things.
If someone came to mind while you were reading this...
You already know what to do.
P.S.
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