Frozen butter

One of the handy things about the location of my workplace is its proximity to a small plaza with a grocery store, post office, drug store and several other stores. It’s so nice to be able to pop over after work and grab a few needed items before heading home for the day.

This past week I walked over to grab a few things I needed for making lunches and while I was there…BUTTER was on SALE!! I don’t know about you, but in our home, when something like butter is on sale, you carpe diem all over it! LOL Now, I should mention, these quick little stops at the grocery store after work mean I’ve walked over, with just my backpack and one of those foldy-uppy grocery bags…so not a lot of room to stock up on sale items. AND let’s not forget the walk home with a loaded pack and bag back up the big hill…but seriously though…it’s butter…so you make room and you take the weight! #amirite

So there I was, checking out my groceries, packing everything “just so” in the little room that was left in my backpack, strategically placing items in my grocery bag so they don’t get squished…and after every nook and cranny was filled, I still had this one pound of butter to find a place for. Hmmmm…ah ha! I realized I could slide it into one of the water bottle holders on the outside of my pack! Eureka moment for sure!!!! (at my age you gotta celebrate all the intellectual victories LOL)

I set off with my goods, back through the snowy paths and up the big hill toward home…feeling a sense of accomplishment, also realizing that the weight of my pack and bag had transformed my walk home into a workout LOL…we’ll call it multi-tasking – commute/workout/fresh air…#win

Once home I set to unpacking my groceries then headed straight to the shower! After supper, I started getting myself organized for the next day (my mornings are WAY too early to have time – or brain space – to put my food together for the day). I wanted to pack a sweet treat #sweettooth and decided to make a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies…mmmmmm. Ok…where’s that butter?? Oh no!! It was nowhere to be found!!

I was a bit upset for about half a second then actually started to giggle thinking about the next person who would walk the sidewalk after me and find…a random pound of butter just laying there in front of them LOL #smacksforehead Oh well…no biggie…

Later that evening, hubby and I went for a walk. Yes…people do go for long walks even when it’s -15!! Mid-walk I had the crazy idea to retrace my walk home from work on the off chance the butter would still be there. Obviously, I had zero idea where it fell out and we were not about to walk all the way to the grocery store but hey…why not take a chance??

We were just about to turn around and lo and behold…there it was!!! My precious pound of butter, with a big dent in one corner from it’s terrifying fall from my pack, nicely placed on top of a snowbank LOL Seriously…we laughed pretty hard! The butter was completely frozen but otherwise fine…so we scooped it up and headed home.

I know this is a SUPER random thing to write about…but it got me thinking…

One might say there’s a lot of turmoil in the world right now. It feels like people are doing and saying things that seem unkind and selfish, even pitting person against person, neighbour against neighbour, nation against nation…and some days I really feel the weight of it all. I feel small and helpless to come up against what at times feels like blatant inhumanity…until I found my frozen butter! With the cost of food these days, I would not have begrudged anyone for just keeping the pound of butter, but they didn’t. This person chose to look beyond themselves through a simple act of kindness and unbeknownst to them…restored a bit of hope for humanity in me!

If one pound of frozen butter can spur me on to look for ways to be kind, to live a bit more selflessly, care for my neighbour, friend, community in small simple ways…what might all our combined collective actions of kindness do???

Interestingly, I had to GO and LOOK for the butter, it didn’t just magically appear, even though I really wanted it when I went to make those cookies! Looking for the good that’s out there does take effort sometimes. It requires us to change our focus, remove filters, think of the needs of others before ourselves, and possibly even physically even get up and out of our comfortable places to search for it.

Chronic illness can feel just as overwhelming. Medications that don’t work the way you’d hoped they would, job loss, inability to care for yourself and/or your family, inability, or unwillingness of people to understand your illness, a sense of powerlessness…it can all feel like a lot and you’re really feeling the weight of it all.

If that’s how you’re feeling today, may I encourage you to search for the positives that are happening…look for those little gems of hope that are creeping up or are there but wildly over-shadowed by the big, hard stuff. Maybe you’ll need a friend to do the search with you. I don’t think I would have walked as far or in the direction I walked if my husband hadn’t been with me…I probably would have just waited until the next day when I had to walk to work again…but maybe the butter would have been gone by then…?? Let me tell you! I am planning to make a BIG ‘OL batch of cookies with my rescued butter and I’d love to have you swing by to enjoy one (or more) with me!