A Simple Message: How Sometimes the Smallest Gestures Hold the Greatest Meaning
This morning, as I was preparing for a ridiculously hectic Monday back to school/back to work with my two less-than effervescent sons, I put this necklace on.
And minutes later, I took it off, deciding on another accessory for my outfit. Thinking nothing of it, I placed the necklace on my dresser and moved on to the never-ending tasks that Monday mornings inevitably bring.
Feeling more anxious than normal on this day, as I had not been to the office since last Tuesday and knew there would be a tornadic tsunami of catch-up email to greet me, I took a deep breath, whispered, ‘You can do this!’ rolled my eyes at myself for talking to myself (though internal whisper dialogue is completely normal….right?) and made one last check of the house to be sure the thermostat was down, lights were off, the dogs were in, and no children were hiding in bedroom closets, diligently attempting to escape a dreaded Monday morning back to school after a delicious winter storm gave us a three day reprieve the week before.
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As I walked into my bedroom for the last time, something bright and shiny caught my eye.
I looked closer at my dresser by the doorway; and there, outlined in a perfect heart shape, was the necklace I haphazardly changed out minutes before.
Knowing I did not take the time to form my discarded jeweled accessory into a heart, I noticed a familiar little boy slinking around in the hallway just outside my bedroom door.
“Waylan, did you make my necklace into a heart?”
His eyes twinkled and his face expanded into a big grin. I grabbed the child with the force of a starved mother grizzly and hugged him with all of my might.
Little did he know that that one tiny gesture of sweetness has stuck with me through a very Monday-ish Monday.
My son’s act of kindness saved the early morning traffic from my typical road rage, it softened the blow of my email system shutting down on me no less than four times when I desperately needed to respond to an urgent request, it provided a spark of joy and an intrinsic smile when my typical Monday morning response is more of an inaudible growl, followed by, “Coffee First!”
A seemingly insignificant act of sweetness, by my youngest son, managed to blanket my day with a welcome and necessary ray of sunshine on an otherwise dreary and manic Monday morning.
These two sons of mine are special. I often wonder if they grasp the significance of their spontaneous, simple gestures of love.
These days are long. They are dark. They are sometimes desperate and discouraging.
Yet one tiny little gesture of caring goodwill can irrevocably change the direction from steady south, to uplifting, full of possibility, never-ending, joyfully navigating due NORTH.
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”
Proverbs 3:27 niv
