“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” Mother Teresa

My blue-planet family, we do live where barrel bombs fall like pinatas upon kids, and a toxic foam is in mouths where cotton candy should be.

The video footage of this insanity makes my face sag…as well as my heart.

Yes, we live in troubled times, but were any times untroubled? For sanity’s sake, I like to focus on the near, the unexpected, the amazing.

It didn’t feel like spring when I drove to the gym for my swim a recent cold morning, but en route I  found myself warmed…just by some small things.

First I came upon a site I was part of some eleven years ago. And in those passing years I often looked up as I passed a certain house. Followers of my humble blog might recall what I wrote about it in 2007:https://tinyurl.com/sad-away

In our efforts to help some stranded kittens while waiting for a local animal rescue group to come to the scene, I used a piece of wood I found nearby to stop cans of cat food we had placed there from tumbling off the roof.

When the wood was new…and the kitten too

The kittens were rescued, but the wood remained for over a decade…through the winds of hurricane Eileen, through the howls of Sandy…and uncounted nor’easters…the wood “woodn’t” move. It was just laid there, no nails, screws or glue…since 2007.

Sandy

In this October 28, 2012 photo, Long Beach residents bagged sand from the Roosevelt Blvd beach, where Sandy was to roar ashore the next day. Note the house with an arrow:

The photo below of Roosevelt Blvd was taken Nov. 6, 2012. It shows the result of Sandy’s entrance. Note the cinder block wall, torn down by pounding, wind-driven waves. High gales tore through this condo canyon failing to budge the pine plank.

The placing of the plank to keep the kittens fed was such a small thing. But each passing of the house brought some big grins to me and to all who knew the story.

The wood in 2014 after seven years in place, the hole, from where the kittens came out, long since boarded up.

But I see today, spring 2018, 11 years later, the wood finally did deteriorate to the point where it is about to come down. But the memory will not come down, nor deteriorate.

I shot the wood, with a sparrow anxiously watching me. But no need for him to worry about cats up there these days. The resident is an obvious lover of birds, there are numerous bird abodes

Further toward the gym, I saw that some Long Beach residents took their own pothole action while the city has been a bit slower to act.

Sad to say, when it comes to road rage Long Beachers are no shrinking violets, so to speak, but this unique potting of spring flowers was respected by all who motored by.

I’m told this pothole planting is in vogue in Long Beach. Maybe it’s even going on elsewhere in these great United States? Americans and their whimsy, their fantastic sense of humor.

Just several days taking this pic the hole has been filled. Would that all earth’s problems be resolved so quickly.

Yes, Earthship Brothers and Sisters, we do have killers of kids among us, but let us not despair. Monsters like this have risen before, and fallen under the steamroller of humankind’s wrath. In the meantime, maybe we can draw each other close…with a greater focus on small things. Because it’s in the small things, “…that your strength lies.”

And your sanity.

For Service Dog, Frankie,  some whipped cream from Julia

Be well,

Leebythesea