Sunday Sentiments

 

One of my goals for June is to offer a kind word to someone, somewhere, every day. I have loved this challenge and the way it has pushed me to look at those around me through a new lens of love.

            But what a gift it is when it unexpectedly comes back my way!

            Friday night, Ryan and I had just short of a thousand errands to run. It was grocery night, and we had things to return to stores, and somewhere in there, we squeezed in a coffee shop date. It had been a long week for both of us – not at all in a bad way, but just in the kind of way where the to-do list exceeded the number of hours in the day. Every day.

            I’d fully intended to wash and straighten my hair the night before, but I ran out of time. (See above.) So Friday was an embarrassing day of ponytail hair that didn’t even really ponytail all that well. I aimed for it to look beach-wave messy in a low pony with a little strand of hair wrapped around to dress it up. But it was so curly and full of product, I couldn’t even smooth it back very well.

            I just felt bedraggled, more than anything else.

            Ryan was a sweetheart and said I looked beautiful, but I just wanted to be done being out in public and be back at home in the safety of our home that is used to such displays of wild third-day hair.

            As we stood in line at Menards, where we purchased two stepping stones for our landscaping, the young lady running the register stared at me. See? This is why I want to go home. But then she hesitantly said, “Your hair is just SO BEAUTIFUL.”

            I about had to pick up my jaw and rehinge it.

            As we women tend to do, I stuttered and scrambled to explain the third day situation and how I couldn’t get it to smooth right, and she just smiled and said, “It looks messy-cool.” Possibly the highest compliment coming from a teenager to a forty-something woman, right?

            While I will try not to make a habit of stubborn third day  hair in public, it was a joy to me to have someone who didn’t have to say a word…say a word. A word of encouragement.

            See? It’s the simplest little things that we gloss right over, because they don’t matter…that actually do matter. The words are easy and free to say. And their result can be so priceless.

            Don’t give up encouraging, friends. Hearts need you!!