Sometimes the little things matter, and they either make or break a day. Today a little thing considered nothing by someone else: this pumpkin and its seeds, completely made my day. (3 min read)
Every year at this time I realise how very much I like pumpkin seeds, for lots of reasons. They are yummy. -and roasted pumpkin seeds are something you just can’t get all the time in England. There are very few things you really can’t get here any more – it’s very ‘American’ now in many ways. Gone are the days when people looked at you funny if you asked for a bagel or a pretzel. But real pumpkin seeds? They are still a once a year thing, and after Halloween the pumpkins magically (and instantly) vanish, and here it becomes Christmas in the shops.
Our pumpkins remianed uncarved as decorations, mostly from being quite busy over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday I finally de-seeded them. I’m the only one who eats the seeds here, and oh my goodness! I instantly remembered how very much I love them, and really wished for more pumpkins. I said to my son – there was a pumpkin someone dumped by the edge of the woods we pass on the way to school last Friday. He looked at me and said, ‘No. You cannot have a pumpkin from the side of the road.’
Fair enough. But. Well, it was still there today, so I stopped just to look at it. It was completely fine, not damaged at all, and just sitting there. So I took it home.
It felt like I’d found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, with this little pumpkin. It certainly brightened up a very rainy day, and did it have seeds! Someone out there smiled on me and I very much appreciated (was even completely delighted by) this random thing. It felt like a gift and not something overlooked, discarded, of no value. (-Don’t worry, I am not into dumpster-diving or knitting my own granola. <–I know that doesn’t make sense, but you could imagine someone so into re-use they might do something like that.) I do notice and celebrate the little things. To me, this was a big little thing.
In the photo above the pumpkin still has a leaf on it from the woods, and the uncooked seeds next to an apple I picked from the tree in the middle of my university campus. Individually they are little things.
The way we pay attention to, care for, and ‘do’ the little things is also the way we do the big things.
Next time someone does a little thing for you, or the next time you achieve something that might be seen as a ‘little thing’, perhaps you can celebrate like it’s a big thing. 🌸