Pandemic Reflection: It’s the Little Things That Bring Comfort

One blessing from the current coronavirus stay-at-home order is that I have realized how little I need. My purchases plummeted once I was confined to my house. No spur-of-the-moment stops at a coffee shop for chai. No shopping sprees for a new spring wardrobe. Not even a trip to the drugstore for new shampoo—there’s a bottle in the guest bathroom if I run out.

Some friends have talked about engaging in online retail therapy as an outlet for their boredom. But why? No one will see what I’m wearing, and I had more than enough clothes before the pandemic. My home office was pretty well set up after I purchased a new monitor last fall. I just bought a new tablet for reading ebooks in February. (I do worry about my laptop battery, but as long as the laptop works on its charger, I can function.)

My only big purchase since the stay-at-home order has been cushions for the window seat in the master bedroom. That’s been on my to-do list for months, and I finally placed the order. I hope I measured correctly.

But really, I’ve discovered that all I need to manage my life these days electricity and the Internet.

And food. I have always hated going to the grocery store, but now I almost miss it. Watching my text messages for substitutions from the Instacart shopper isn’t quite the same as making my own decisions about which oranges to buy, what flavor of yogurt, or which brand of flour to substitute if my usual Gold Medal is out. I may have to don my face mask and risk a trip to get groceries soon.

I’ve spent time the last few weeks reflecting on the little pleasures of life. Smiling at the sunrise I see when I open my window shade in the morning. Sitting in my screened porch as the birds sing outside, noting how each day the trees are greener. Baking beer bread—something I haven’t done in about thirty years. Using the new comb and brush my husband gave me for Christmas.

I wasn’t too impressed with the comb and brush initially. I had a perfectly good comb. In fact, I’ve had that comb since I was in about the sixth grade. It has been lost and found several times, and I’ve always been glad to retrieve it from wherever I forgot it. This comb was purchased at the Rexall Drug Store in the Uptown Shopping Center in Richland, Washington, several years before I took it to college (which is why I estimate I got it sometime around the sixth grade). The word “Rexall” is still vaguely visible. But its flexible rubber is now hardening after fifty years of regular use. It always fit well in my hand and I’ve never had any comb I liked as well.

Until the comb my husband gave me. When I didn’t display the appropriate enthusiasm upon opening the gift box on Christmas morning, he said, “I researched what to get you. It’s from Nordstrom.” Only my husband would research a comb and brush. But a Nordstrom purchase, in our family, is a mark of distinction. So I took the gift as a sign of his thoughtfulness and devotion.

The comb he gave me is a Mason Pearson brand (quite an upgrade from Rexall), and while it is a different shape than my old standby, it pulls through my straight hair smoothly without tangling. The comb has become one of the little things I relish now. One of the pleasures of staying at home, along with the greening trees and chirping birds. And soon, I’ll have the cushions in the window seat for gazing outside when it’s too cool (or too warm) for the porch.

What little things have you been appreciating during the recent weeks at home?