The Little Things

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”

― L.R. Knost

This morning I got the 10 towels cut off the loom yesterday into the washing machine so that I can press them this afternoon.  As I did this rather mundane (but magical!) task, I thought about how Life is made up of all the little things that happen in between the big things.

We - many of us - think that Life is about the Big Things.  What grand thing did we do?  What big award did we win?  What significant mark did we leave upon this world?

When in reality, Life is about living our lives - all the day to day things that make life possible.  Getting up and dressed in the morning.  Making meals.  Doing the laundry (or in my case, wet finishing, because the laundry is Doug's 'job'.)

It's about paying the bills.  Taking care of ourselves.  And each other.

While it is good to set oneself goals that we work towards, what we do to get there is also living.

We are going through turbulent times, 'interesting' times.  As individuals we may have little power to change anything, but we do have the power to speak up when we see things that are harmful to others.

We can say to our friends, 'this is not right, it should not be happening'.  We don't even have to attend protests in person anymore - if someone is on social media, the statement can be made clearly.

I have never been a very public person in terms of my politics.  In my childhood home it was considered no one else's business how someone voted or what they held to be true.  So I rarely made any mention of my politics or my views.

In part I was afraid.  I was dependent upon others to hire me and I did not want to offend anyone with my left leaning political stance.  But I am no longer trying to get people to hire me and I am - quite frankly - appalled at how far the country I live in has swung to the right.  All the way to 'alt' in many cases.

My father fought Nazis in World War II.  I rather suspect he would be appalled at the rise of the alt-right now in the 21st century.

As a feminist, I am appalled that things like the gender wage gap still exists.  

I am appalled that racism is still depriving people of their rights, even to the right to exist.

I am aghast that politicians are playing on unfounded fears of white people to further marginalize people who are not considered white enough, therefore lesser than.

After reading through Twitter and FB this morning I felt particularly powerless and useless, and putting a load of hand woven tea towels into the washing machine felt particularly useless and pointless.  

And then I remembered the quote above. And reminded myself that things can still be fixed.  That life isn't just the big things, but all the little things that get us through the day.  The tiny moments of satisfaction, like cutting a warp off the loom, getting the next one ready to go on.

Things that are broken can be mended, with intention.

And lighting someone else's candle means there are now two lights to illuminate the darkness.