THANKFUL FRIDAY

Poops

2 Likes, 3 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Poops"

While most people are posting their high school graduation photos, I am sharing a photo of a food grinder. This isn’t just any food grinder. I’ve had this thing since early middle school. It was an important tool for a serious 4-H project where me and a few other girls talked about Oklahoma grown stuff. We would set up tables at county and state fairs. Someone talked about dairy. Another girl focused on pecans. I believe there was even a table about cotton. My table was all about wheat and showed the farm to table process from growing it in a small bucket to making it into bread. I used that little food grinder to grind up wheat for making bread that I would hand out as samples. Sometimes, the dairy girl would churn butter and there would be butter for the bread. I did this because I was Lisa Simpson. I am 100% certain that an episode of the Simpsons exists with this very same story line. Any way, the project ran its course and the little food grinder got put away in the far recesses of my Mom’s kitchen cabinets. Occasionally it would make an appearance to grind up something like chocolate or nuts.

When we cleaned out the old house, Mom finally let me have the grinder, like she felt that by the age of forty I had finally proven myself responsible enough to take possession of it. I use it about as often as it was used after the wheat table ended. Mostly, I use it to grind up spices and the flaxseeds I use to wash my face (yes…I am hippie). The little grinder has been getting used daily now that I have to grind my own coffee beans. Then, the other day, my trusty little grinder broke. That black piece laying there on the side is meant to be attached to the lid and is required to make the grinder grind. That very important little piece broke. I know what you’re thinking. How can this possibly be something for a post on gratitude?

Well… I can think of a couple of reasons why this is something to be grateful for.

First of all, the grinder still works! I can hold that little black piece in place and engage the ‘run’ button. Sure, it’s janky, but who cares as long as is it still gets the job done. Secondly, it reminds me to be grateful for the little things that make our lives easier. I am privileged to have coffee beans and I am privileged to have a means for grinding those beans. Heck, I’m privileged to have any kind of coffee at all. I am stocked up on coffee right now. So I don’t want to wait until I am almost out or completely out of something to be grateful. My little grinder is The Little Engine Who Could and I don’t want to wait until it can’t to appreciate its usefulness. I mean, that’s usually when we notice those things. When we are without, we realize how much we appreciated something. I want to remember to appreciate stuff now, while I have it, while it is working.

If I remember to do that, I can remember to be grateful for the big stuff.