Sparks

Everywhere we look, there are reminders to slow down. If you have small children in your life, you get those reminders more frequently.

We pop into the grocery store every Sunday to pick up odds and ends for the week while my mom does her regular shopping. The last few weeks, we’ve seen the same elderly lady working in the yogurt section. My girls love their yogurt so we are always picking some up. A few weeks ago, my 2.5 year old decided to make friends with this lady. She and my husband started to chat and he learned she was from Eastern Europe. She liked seeing my girls and they reminded her of her granddaughter. They make her so happy. She explained that because of the recent election outcomes, her family isn’t going to be traveling to visit her anymore. It’s too dangerous. She told my husband she grew up with morally depraved autocrats in Eastern Europe. She thought nothing like that could ever happen in America, “but it did.” Evidently, her family is afraid that if they visit and something happens, they’ll either be trapped here or deported to somewhere other than their home.

We were worried she would be spending Thanksgiving alone so we invited her to ours. I was so relieved to hear she would be spending the day with friend down the road. The week after Christmas, my daughter ran through the store to the yogurt section yelling, “We need to find my favorite lady.” She got a big hug and lots of hellos. Her coworkers thought it was her granddaughter. Their friendship makes me so happy. But I think it makes them even happier.

Just think what we would have missed if our special little nugget hadn’t slowed us down.

Today’s assignment:
Get ready to go do a task you usually rush through. Then TAKE YOUR TIME. Slow it all down. Even if you don’t make a new friend from Eastern Europe, I have no doubt you’ll notice more. Perhaps, you’ll see the person fitting the perfect description of the protagonist in your long-awaited debut novel.

You’ll never know unless you try.