By Gerri Graves
The sales this year are insane! I was able to afford a dreamy, long, black velvet dress with little bats on it. (If you know me, you’re probably laughing at my absolute Halloween obsession! Lol) Extra 70% off sale prices, free shipping, and a free $15.00 rewards bennie, even though I haven’t shopped there in over 4 1/2 years! Got that awesome dress for $30 and change……and I got myself a little Christmas pressie and a dress to wear on Christmas.
It was something small, but it made me terribly giddy. Poor folk can’t afford luxuries like salon appointments, getting our nails done, makeup not sold at the local grocery store…….and a new dress.
It’s been a lot of little things this season that have made life truly enjoyable. I think we forget that. I felt inclined to share a few stories during this festive season as a reminder that this is the time we need each other most.
I’ll start with a little story from my youngest. I know, another story about my kids……but I am always amazed at their resourcefulness, their defiance to bend to the whims of their peers, their constant comedy relief and their bottomless well of empathy to fight for strangers they’ll never meet. Julian calls it his “job”……and he means it.
When he was little, I walked him to and from school every day. He was mischievous. I couldn’t trust him not to deviate on a whim. And……the world is scary. He always smiled and was eager to make new friends. I constantly found him talking to adults about Minecraft or his new hand sanitizer (He had a serious issue with getting his hands dirty).
During the fall on these walks, we had a little contest of sorts. We’d gather acorns and leaves and stuff them in our pockets. Whoever had the prettiest, most colorful leaf…….would get a treat. He always won, of course.
There would be laundry days where almost every pocket of his contained fistfuls of, by then, crunchy leaves. I’d fill up half the kitchen trash with leaves alone!
It’s one of the things that should have annoyed me, but didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. My little nature boy with his pockets of rocks, acorns and leaves, brought me so much joy. I loved his endless curiosity about all things, nature.
It was a sad season when he grew out of his leaf-gathering ways. Can’t keep them wee forever, I guess, but it did feel like a chapter closing, while a new one began.
A few weeks ago, I was whiling away the day with my latest lampshade project, as he came bounding in from a day at work. He removed his jacket and came straight to me and handed me, you guessed it, leaves.
With his still mischievous little grin, he said, “I thought these were really pretty.” He remembered. He remembered the leaves.
I just sat and looked at them and replied, “They are very lovely.” He remembered the leaves.
It was something so small that carried with it a wave of nostalgia mixed with a pang of sorrow…..that our kids have to grow up at all. He was my BFF one day, and a defiant teenager in too short of time.
But the whole event of him remembering the leaves, showed me that the little mischievous troublemaker was still in there somewhere.
I mentioned it to my friend Denise when I saw her last. We had a get-together with coffee and the farmers’ market. She had found out that the farmers’ market was giving away meal kits to people affected by the government shutdown, so she offered to take me there.
Laden down with 10 pounds of potatoes, veggies and the meal bag, we made our way back to her house to finish our coffee accompanied by a ham and cheese croissant.
It was then, she reached into her china cabinet and grabbed a set of old china cups…..from China, no less. She knows my love of all things Chinese lately and gifted me these gorgeous, delicate, blue and white teacups…..complete with little lids!
It’s super hard to find these old Chinese tea cups with their lids here, and I was over the moon that she gave them to me! A small thing that meant so much.
My friend Chris, also aware of the food thing with the government shutdown, brought me over a box full of food and like a half gallon of Chardonnay! She remembered I cooked my Turkey in white wine. That she recollected that fact, knew our resources were slim….. and just spontaneously showed up on our doorstep, was such a delight! A small gift that allowed me to make my famously moist and delicious turkey for Thanksgiving.
My friend Jeannie, too, did something rather randomly. She checked out an audiobook I’d been wanting to listen to, and brought it with a CD player. Again, a small, unasked-for……kindness.
My daughter Vero knew there was an old lamp I wanted, but could not afford, and bought it for me. She’s a 46″ statue lamp, without a shade or wiring of any sort……just her. I’ve never seen anything like her. Most likely, I will never see again…..and now she’s all mine. She needs plaster repairs, a new paint job, wiring and one of my handmade silk shades, but I can’t wait to restore her to her former glory. It was such a sweet, small (huge lamp) thing that would take me away from my, at times, dreary existence. The world doesn’t exist when I’m creating. Better than any antidepressant or counselor session, that’s for sure.
With these examples, I want to remind my fellow folk that kindness is better than any expensive gift. That small offering, that little favor you did for someone……was probably forgotten by you as soon as you did it. But I thought you’d like to know that little ‘something’ was probably an ‘everything’ to the recipient.
In the age of commercialism, I’m warmed by my friends, family and strangers who gift themselves to us and see little warmth outside of our inner sanctum.
Whether it be a handful of leaves or an ugly, old lamp……there’s love behind it. In essence, the best gift you can give anyone this year is the gift of yourself.
Happy Holidays and hopefully, a happier New Year.