Enjoy The Little Things

Blog 2147 – 08.12.2021

There was a song that came out when I was a small boy back in the nineteen-fifties entitled “Little Things Mean A Lot” and they certainly do. In a more recent song from The Greatest Showman movie called “A Million Dreams” there is a line about a dream house:

The little nineteen foot pull-behind trailer that has been my home away from home for most of the last nine years as I have worked in several different states is filled with little treasures that brighten my days, sunny rainy, and I love both.

When my daughter was still little I read somewhere that to make gift buying easier for friends and family you should let it be know that you were a collector. I chose elephants and Emily bought me my first elephant at a resale shop with her allowance and was so proud to present it to me.

Over the years I added many elephants to that collection all with their own unique stories. Some were expense gifts others dollar store specials or some cost even pennies from resale shops like the first one but they were all priceless to me because of the love behind them. They were each one “thoughtful gifts” not like so many gifts that impress us mostly that the giver evidently gave little thought in the selection and leave us wondering, “Does that person even know me at all? Why would anyone think I would want that? I would have been happier had they bought themselves a snack to enjoy rather than waste their money on this thing.” But, of course most of us just smile, and say, “You shouldn’t have.” Words that perhaps we mean in a different way than they are taken. “You really shouldn’t have!”

Thinking about possible grandchildren in my future, with my son Jonathan recently marrying his lovely Lauren, I have been considering of a new thing to collect. I was for many years Dee Jay the Clown at family and friends’ birthday parties. I have not suited up in many years. I have also worn a Santa suit on several occasions beginning in 1976 when the church I was attending had a large children’s ministry busing hundreds of kids to Sunday school and church on Sunday mornings, had a Christmas in July promotion. I had a ball and someone even acquired an antique sleigh for the honored guest from the North Pole to sit in.

At first I thought I might collect clowns in honor of Dee Jay and resurrect that character for my future grandkids, but I have decided on Santa Claus instead. I already have a few Santa’s and they are always easy to find in resale shops priced just right for grand children who might be looking for a gift for their favorite Santa – grandpa, gramps, grandpa, Paw Paw, Pop Pop, or whatever moniker they decide to lay on me.