Little Things

This last Sunday, the first one in Advent, we sang Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. Sometimes I get a week like this with several smaller things to build. In this case, I have two easels with octagonal supports, some shelves (I made a mistake on them and have to repair it), a small box without a lid. I have bigger projects hanging out, but they are waiting for decisions the customers have to make or are Christmas presents.

It’s easy, especially when you style yourself a furniture maker, to put yourself on automatic pilot and do these projects as quickly as possible without due care. The fact that I had to redo the shelves proves each of these is as important, as a piece of work, as anything I do because wrapped up in each one is a commitment to quality and a promise to stick with that level of making.

It’s a good thing my mother didn’t decide that small was negligible. I was 2 lbs. 15 ozs when born. They put me in one of my father’s shoes when they brought me home after a while in the hospital. Fortunately for my life, she didn’t just mail it in. She treated me as though I was a treasure which I was to her.

Here’s to little things and their importance.