sometimes it’s the little things

that bring the greatest joy.

Sometimes it’s the little things that slow you down and cause that moment of pause. It’s those moments where you don’t really care what those around you think — you just be — you just live — you just feel gratitude.

Mine was this morning.

This rainy, unseasonably cold, May morning.

The older girls had a dear friend sleep over and I was going to make them muffins and, of course,  I was out of muffin wrappers. Knowing Samuel would want a muffin {which needed to be gluten free} as well I packed him up and headed to the grocery store.

Samuel in his sweet red coat and sweatpants and no socks.

As we walked in — I was doing the “I’m on a hurried mission walk” — Samuel saw the carts with the little cars attached to the front. You know the carts. The ones that I try to avoid — germs, you know. The carts that are noisy and loud and take skill to turn. Yet, he saw it and his little eyes lit up with excitement.

I hesitated.

And relented.

And surprisingly, I quickly got over my fear of germs. Instead I was blessed with this sweet moment of joy watching my healthier Samuel drive two steering wheels passed the freshly loaded rack of $2.50 cantaloupe, and the grinning ladies behind the service counter, all the way back to the frozen section of the natural foods area to pick up gluten free muffins. As we walked by the brown organic eggs and pricey bottles of Noni I stopped, pulled out my phone {hence the picture quality} and tried to capture just a bit of that moment.

It was beautiful.

This moment of joy captured in Samuel trickled down to me. It’s funny how the things we fear {for me the cart full of germs} can turn into sources of great joy. It’s just letting go of that fear. Of not caring about the extra work, about others’ opinions, about the extra time. Somehow those twenty minutes in our grocery store became the highlight of my day — and caused me to reflect on how many opportunities I miss.

After all, I had hand sanitizer in the car. 🙂