While I'd like to tell you that we did something in service of human-kind for MLK day, the truth is that we cleaned the basement. It was the first day Sweet Husband and I have had off together--but without Little Miss around to tumble down the stairs of death--in, well, since she's been earth-side...so 1 year, 1 month, and, I guess, about 15 days?
It may not have contributed to the greater good, but boy did it help my good.
I have a dear friend who has become a Marie Kondo evangelist. I don't know that I'm quite ready to join the congregation, but she's definitely onto something. Getting rid of crap you don't need anymore is a darned good drug.
But beyond that euphoric "free" feeling, I also found a little extra bit of happiness that I did not expect.
In the process of cleaning the basement, I went through Little Miss's baby clothes and did a hard pruning of some things I had saved. I have a co-worker whose baby is almost exactly a year younger, and the other day she posted a picture of her baby in a dress we had handed down. The dress had been a favorite, but for whatever reason, I let it go.
But seeing it on someone else's beautiful baby...well, I'm not saying I'm going to get rid of all of my trove of baby clothes, but it makes me so happy to see that little dress being used and loved. So much better than it being held in stasis in a plastic tub.
As I was just finishing up with the baby clothes, I happened to walk by my spinning wheel. I took a hard look at it.
If you recall, my wheel was a phenomenal flea market find. (Sweet Husband's find, in fact. I might have walked right past it.) I played with it for a bit after we brought it home, but I discovered that while I like spinning, I don't love it. The poor thing hadn't been touched for at least five years, but I'd been holding onto it, "just in case".
Caught in the spirit of purging, I snapped a photo of my wheel and offered it for sale on my Facebook page. A local friend-of-friends snapped it up, and her husband came and got it last night. Gone, just like that.
By this morning, though, there was a beautiful video of my former wheel's new owner, spinning away with lovely, bright fiber, as her sweet baby napped on her back.
Again, it did my heart such good to see it being actually used.
I have a tendency to (maybe?) look too hard for "signs" from the heavens, but the combination of the two things--the baby clothes and the spinning wheel, both finding such good homes--made me feel like, whatever evidence there may be to the contrary sometimes, the universe really is working out just the way it should.