Little Things

My friend Teddy Allen once told me, “It’s always the little things, Josh, that will become the big things.”

This is a story about the little things…

 

It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m late.

I wish I could say it’s because I overslept, but it’s not.

I was actually up before my alarm.

You see Wednesdays are Donuts with Davis days.

It started off as bribery to make my two year old happy when he woke up to discover his mom had already left for work, & he was stuck with Da attempting to brush the matted & curly bedhead he acquired the night before. With the simple question of “Do you want to go get donuts?”, my cranky toddler turned into a sweet & helpful little boy. I would whisk him away to the store, hurriedly carry him inside, quickly throw his donut in a bag, and rush to drop him off with his sitter. I would become easily agitated if he dawdled inside because I was on a schedule, & I just had to be on time. Donut Wednesdays became more of a chore than a treat for me, as they made my stress level rise every single time.

But this week…

This week was different.

Some devastating news for my family made me realize how precious each second of my time with my son is. I realized that in 10 years, no one would remember if I got to work at 8:10 instead of 8:00, but the memories we are making will be a long time not forgotten.

So, today, instead of rushing through the choice of donuts, we pondered over each potential item, & we settled on donut holes for Davis & an apple fritter for me. I let him peruse the chip aisle, chuckling as he said to each bag, “Dadee, I need dose. I need dem.” A bag of Cool Ranch Doritos was the final selection. He’ll never eat them, (the last three bags of chips he “needed” stayed on the front seat of my truck until I ate them for breakfast or put them in my lunch bag) but he likes to choose.

After he picked out his chips, we made our way to the counter, and by this point, he knows the routine. He placed his chips, his donut bag, & his napkin on the counter so we can give the lady our “monies.” I have tried to explain to him that he can keep his napkin, but he is emphatic that it must be paid for as well. As the cashier began ringing up our items, Davis started his weekly routine of picking up every single bag and bar of candy. My child doesn’t like chocolate; if he didn’t look like me, I might question if he was really my child, so with each item, the conversation would go like this:

“What’s dat?”

“That’s a Twix.”

“I want dat.”

“You don’t like that.”

“Uh-huh! I like dat!”

“You don’t like that; it’s chocolate.”

“I don’t like chocolate.”

This whole process goes on every single week.

After he sorted through every single item on the racks, I thought we were good to final get our donuts and leave. I was wrong. My child then began to reorganize the candy racks. He placed every candy bar meticulously in its proper place and made sure everything was lined up perfectly. Once everything was aligned to his satisfaction, we were off. Davis said, “Thank you.” and “Goodbye.” to the ever so patient cashier, and then we headed to my truck.

Nope.

Not really.

We were headed to look at the broken carousel outside the store.

Now, Davis knows it is broken. He has known it is broken for quite some time. He will tell you, “Carousel is bwoken.” This knowledge, however, did not stop him from inspecting every horse individually, all while saying, “You’re bwoken.” to each one. Once his inspection was complete, he decided that he was finally ready to load up and leave.

At this point, my watch said 7:50.

Our donut adventure began at 7:25.

I could not help but smile.

I was obviously going to be late. It’s a solid 15 minute drive from my house to my office, and we had not even left the store. I wanted to be irritated that even after getting up early, I knew I was going to be late. But there was no irritation whatsoever. The smile of pure joy on my son’s face let me know that I had made the right decision. He was happy, and had I hurriedly rushed him, I would’ve stolen those moments from him.

So I guess I’ve told you this long and probably over drawn out story to tell you this…

Enjoy the little moments.

Life is going to go on if you’re late for work on day a week.

The world will not stop if you leave work early once in a while so you can have an extra 30 minutes in your backyard.

Our time here on Earth with those we love is far too precious to stress over things that won’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Play with your kids.

Hang out with your friends.

Call your dad.

Hug your momma.

Laugh more.

Learn something new.

Love people with no regard for their color, religion, sexual orientation, or status.

Live each moment.

Those are the little things that will become the big things.