The Joy of Small Steps

Making cards has been a creative outlet for me for many years. When my grandchildren were small, I made and sent cards to them weekly. Of course I was absolutely thrilled when my eldest  granddaughter asked me to make the invitations to her wedding.

It was so much fun designing the invitation. Three generations sat around the table playing with different designs. We laughed and played and created until we came up with something pleasing to us all. It was a loving time of bonding and connection between myself, my daughter, and my granddaughter. It was one of those incredible opportunities to create memories and enjoy each other at our best. It was love personified.

When we first designed the cards, it didn’t occur to me how many separate steps would be involved in making one hundred fifty separate invitations. It is one thing to make one or a dozen cards that require many discrete steps. It is another thing altogether to make one hundred fifty.  

All the paper had to be cut and the edges deckled – first the card stock and then the paper which went inside. Then all that paper had to be measured and scored in two different places. Each end of the card stock was dry embossed – three hundred separate actions. Following the dry embossing, each side got a swipe of silver inking. After the body of the invitation was printed, I heat embossed both sides, folded the invitation and attached it to the card stock. When I added up all the steps, there were at least twenty-eight separate steps that went into creating each invitation or forty-two hundred separate and tedious actions.

Yet each of those separate actions, while small and boring, made up the whole. Without performing each step, the final product could not have been created. No step was glamorous or lovely – a cut here, a score or fold there, a swipe of silver ink over the whole. And yet the finished product was beautiful and fit a winter wedding theme and my granddaughter’s vision perfectly.

So it is with life. Day to day activities in themselves seem small and insignificant. Washing dishes, cooking a meal, or changing sheets seems mundane and tedious. Writing a report, doing research, or planning a project don’t fall into the super-hero category.  The myriad actions that I take each day, in themselves seem unimportant and definitely not glamorous. However, each of these actions contribute to the whole. Each of these steps create the mosaic that make up my life and contribute to creation as a whole.

I can perform these acts in love or in resentment. I can choose to see each action as a part of a glorious whole, or I can resent each action as boring and tedious. I can see my place in the world as an amazing piece of a beautiful mosaic or I can see it as worthless and insignificant. I can be grateful for the privilege and opportunity to serve or I can interpret my actions as meaningless. I can choose joy in each small step that goes into making the whole or I can resent that I must do a mundane, boring task.

As I worked on those wedding invitations, it was with a profound sense of love and gratitude – love for the lovely young woman that is my granddaughter and gratitude that she allowed me to share in this milestone event. Each cut, each fold, each little step – though tedious and repetitious –  was done in love and prayers for a future filled with joy for this young couple.

I felt so honored and loved to be trusted to create such an important piece of the wedding experience. It was an amazing opportunity to show my love to my incredible granddaughter. As the tedium of creating step after step felt overwhelming, I remembered why I was doing this work. I wasn’t doing it for myself. It wasn’t just an ordinary card. It was for my Alex, who holds a piece of my heart. Each step was infused with love and joy. Each small step was a way to say, “I love you.  I am proud of you. You are amazing.” Each step was a loving blessing. Each step was a joy.