A frying pan on the stove top and two un-cracked eggs in a bowl beside it was all it took to put a smile on my face and warmth in my heart. Simple. Unexpected. Sweet. And it took my husband less than thirty seconds to accomplish this.
We’ve been in the middle of a kitchen remodel for the last three weeks. I don’t do chaos well. I think it’s a testament to how much the Holy Spirit is working in me that I’ve been able to focus on all the blessings rather than the inconveniences. Blessed to be able to do this project. Blessed to have a trailer to cook in. Blessed that we have plenty of room to park it in the driveway. I could go on, but you get the picture.
We have a toaster oven set up on our dinette table—which sits in our cozy (now cozier!) family room. All of our kitchen paraphernalia is either stacked on our dining room table or sits along the perimeter of the dining room walls. Because our Maltese is a bottom feeder, all of the food is contained in large, plastic bins. And because our dining room is just off the front entrance, every time I walk in the front door, I’m faced with what appears to be a hoarder’s dream.
Cooking meals has become a challenge. But Gracie (the bottom-feeding Maltese) acts as if every trip out to the trailer is an adventure. Her excitement and enthusiasm puts a smile on my face. It’s impossible to grumble about the inconveniences when she accompanies me with such joie de vivre on multiple trips each day.
Back to the frying pan and eggs lest you think I’ve forgotten. Breakfast is the only meal that isn’t a joint effort, so when I popped into the trailer on Sunday morning to find my pan and eggs set up for me … it was that my husband thought of me, in the midst our kitchen chaos, that put a smile on my face.
Every day the world is filled with the anger and violence that is becoming all too “normal” in our society—mass shootings, political upheaval, intolerance. It’s heartbreaking and seems like we have no control of the world around us. But we do have control of how we will respond. It takes less than thirty seconds to greet someone we don’t know with a smile, to hold open a door, to say a kind word. And it starts in the home.
As simple as a frying pan and a couple un-cracked eggs.
Comments 2
Jennie, you are truly right. what you are experiencing right now is hard, but you will have a beautiful kitchen when you are done. When I was in high school, I complained to Mom that I don’t have many friends. She told me to smile to whomever I meet. I was never as outgoing as Mom, but it worked. I also try to say please and thank you, even to my husband who is always doing little things to make my day easier. It is those little things and the grateful attitude that keep our lives happier.
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Amen, sister!