We’ve discussed out trip to Walmart’s on Beach Street after they did there remodeling that drove me to want a drink. But let me tell you something, buttercup. You don’t have to spend a hundred dollars to show somebody you love them. If your like me you don’t need an expensive dinner, a fancy vacation, a diamond necklace, or a dozen roses delivered to the front door.
Sometimes, love looks like a husband walking around Walmart with you, trying to help you find a bra that seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Yes, you read that right. My husband, David, went shopping with me for the unmentionables! LORD, willing and the Creek didn’t rise.
David didn’t try to hurry me up nor did he leave me by myself to find the bra he dove right into the shelves and began to look for me because I couldn’t reach some of the shelves and then the others was on the floor almost and I couldn’t bend down to get to them. Being old sucks Buttercup.
And if you’ve been following my Walmart adventure, you already know that finding that bra was no small undertaking. The shelves were crowded, the sizes were hard to see, and I was beginning to wonder whether the manufacturers had decided women like me no longer needed bras.
There was frustration. There was laughter. There was an eighty-year-old lady who decided David needed a little education in the bra department. And through it all, David stayed beside me and helped me look. He wasn’t complaining that it was taking too long. He wasn’t telling me to forget it. He wasn’t making me feel silly for wanting something I needed. He was simply there.
And sometimes, buttercup, that’s what love looks like. And thanks to David he showed me again that LOVE doesn’t always come with a price tag. Thank the LORD because if LOVE was a price tag I couldn’t afford David because I won the lottery when the LORD gave me David.
We live in a world that sometimes makes love look expensive. We’re surrounded by advertisements telling us what to buy, where to go, and how much to spend to make somebody feel special. Valentine’s Day rolls around, and suddenly it seems that if you don’t have a fancy dinner reservation or a big bouquet of roses, you’re doing love all wrong.
But I don’t believe that. Some of the sweetest things people do for us cost very little money. Sometimes, they don’t cost anything at all. Sometimes, love is bringing home a drink. David has wanted a beer before, but there have been times when he spent his last two dollars getting a drink for me and Charlie instead.
Think about that for a minute. He could have spent those two dollars on himself. Instead, he thought about his wife and son. Was it a grand romantic gesture? No. Was it expensive? Absolutely not. But it was thoughtful. And it reminded me that we were on his mind.
That’s the thing about love. It doesn’t always announce itself with trumpets playing in the background. Sometimes, it quietly shows up in the everyday decisions people make because they care about you. Sometimes it’s just asking, “How Was Your Day?” Love can be as simple as somebody walking through the door and asking, “Hey, how was your day?” Not because they need something. Not because they’re waiting for you to finish talking so they can tell you about their day. But because they genuinely want to know.
It’s a phone call in the middle of the day just to check on you. It’s somebody remembering something you said earlier and asking how it turned out. It’s having a person in your life who wants to know that you’re doing okay. David checks on me throughout the day.
And those little moments remind me that even when we’re busy doing our own things, we’re still thinking about each other. That’s love, too. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. It doesn’t have to solve a problem. Sometimes, just knowing somebody thought about you is enough to brighten an ordinary day. And sometimes, that’s exactly what a person needs.
Then there’s Charlie. One of the things that touches my heart is when Charlie walks into the room and tells me he picked something up for me while he was out doing DoorDash. He thought of me while he was out working. He didn’t have to do that. Nobody handed him a list of things his mother needed. He simply saw something or thought of something and decided to bring it home for me. Those are the moments a mother holds on to.
We spend years taking care of our children, making sure they have what they need, worrying about them, and trying to teach them how to make their way in the world. Then, one day, they do something thoughtful for us. It might be a little thing to them, but to a mother, it can mean the world. Because it tells us that somewhere along the way, they learned to think about somebody besides themselves. And isn’t that what we hope to teach our children?
Not that they have to buy us expensive presents. Not that they have to do something spectacular to earn our love. Just that kindness matters. That remembering somebody matters. That a small gesture can make somebody feel loved. and to me that is what keeps me grateful, thankful and blessed.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Dolly Parton during this whole Walmart adventure. Dolly represents something I appreciate: the ability to bring a little humor, warmth, and kindness into the world. I like the idea of living in Dolly’s world for a little while. A world where we make room for laughter, where we treat people with kindness, and where we don’t need to make everything about ourselves. Imagine what our world might look like if more of us tried that.
What if we took a moment to encourage somebody instead of criticizing them? What if we smiled at the person serving us at a restaurant, thanked the cashier, or asked someone how they were doing and actually listened to the answer? What if we stopped assuming that everybody else was having an easy day? We don’t know what people are carrying.
The person standing in line ahead of us might be worried about a loved one. The cashier might have had a rough morning. The neighbor who seems quiet might be lonely. The person struggling to open a door might simply need somebody to lend a hand. We don’t have to know their whole story to be kind to them. We just have to notice them. And maybe, just maybe, that little bit of kindness will make their day a little easier.
Then there’s Rosie the Riveter. If Dolly reminds me to bring kindness and laughter into the world, Rosie reminds me to persevere. Keep going. Roll up your sleeves. Do what you can with what you have. Life isn’t always easy, and being kind isn’t always easy, either.
Sometimes people disappoint us. Sometimes we’re tired. Sometimes we’ve had a day like my trip to Walmart, when our patience is hanging by a thread and we’re ready to tell the whole world to leave us alone! But we can still choose what we do next. We can put one foot in front of the other. We can try again tomorrow. We can set aside the negative thoughts long enough to do one good thing for somebody else.
That doesn’t mean pretending everything is fine. It doesn’t mean allowing people to mistreat us or never standing up for ourselves. It simply means that we don’t have to let every difficult experience turn us bitter. We can acknowledge that life is hard and still look for opportunities to make it a little better. That’s the kind of perseverance I want to practice. Not just getting through my own challenges, but remembering to be kind to the people I meet along the way.
Now, let me be clear about something. I’m not here to preach to you. I’m not going to tell you that you have to believe what I believe, read a particular book, or follow my faith to be a good person. My faith is important to me, and I believe the Lord helps me through life’s challenges. But I also understand that people come from different backgrounds and believe different things. We don’t have to agree on everything to treat one another with kindness.
You don’t have to share my beliefs to hold open a door for somebody. You don’t have to go to church to ask a lonely person how they’re doing. You don’t have to believe exactly as I do to bring a friend a drink, check on a neighbor, or help somebody who’s having a hard day.
You just have to care enough to do something. So, here’s my little challenge. If you see somebody struggling to open a door, take a moment and help them. If you pass somebody walking alone who looks sad, consider stopping to say hello. If you know somebody who’s been having a difficult time, send a message and ask how they’re doing.
If somebody serves you, thank them. If a person seems to need encouragement, offer a kind word. And if you have a little extra of something somebody else could use, consider sharing it. You never know what that small act might mean to someone. You might be the only person who spoke to them that day. You might be the reason they smiled. You might remind them that even when life is hard, there are still good people in the world. And wouldn’t that be something?
When I think back on that Walmart trip, I remember the frustration. I remember the crowded shelves, my pounding head, and the bra that is still sitting on my desk waiting for me to try it on. But I also remember David walking beside me, helping me find what I needed.
I remember the laughter. I remember that little lady in the bra department who made the whole experience feel like an episode of I Love Lucy which I needed because it helped with the tension I was feeling. And I remember coming home with a reminder that love doesn’t have to be expensive to be meaningful.
Sometimes, love is a husband helping his wife shop for the unmentionables. Sometimes, it’s a husband spending his last two dollars on drinks for his family. Sometimes, it’s a son bringing his mother something he picked up while working. And sometimes, it’s a stranger taking a moment to help somebody they don’t even know.
Those little things matter. They remind us that we don’t have to wait for a holiday, a birthday, or a special occasion to show somebody we care. We can do it today. We can do it with a smile, a kind word, a helping hand, or a simple question: “Hey, how are you doing?”
So, let’s be a little more like Dolly. Let’s bring some warmth and kindness into the world. Let’s be a little more like Rosie. Let’s keep going, even when life gets difficult. And let’s remember that we don’t have to spend a hundred dollars to make somebody feel loved. Sometimes, the smallest things leave the biggest marks on our hearts.
Grateful, Thankful, and Blessed—and hoping we can all leave a little more kindness behind us wherever we go.
Now, buttercup, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to thank David for helping me find that bra, give Charlie a little credit for thinking of his mom, and remind myself that the world could use a whole lot more Dolly, a little more Rosie, and a lot more everyday kindness. And if the next person I meet needs a hand opening a door, I hope I remember to stop and help. Because kindness doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to begin somewhere.
Grateful, Thankful, Blessed.
GreatfulMoments.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
