Today on Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott, we were encouraged to take a favorite quote and use it as a writing prompt.

If you know me at all, then you know my favorite author is Billy Coffey.

My quote was found in his latest book “Steal Away Home”.

 “It’s the small things you take for granted that become very big things when they’re gone. Beneath the unanswered questions and secret fears of everyday beats the thin pulse of tiny ritual that serve to root us.” Billy Coffey

Here is what I wrote, 5 for 5 Brain Dump style (2x). If you don’t know what 5 for 5 Brain Dump is, Here to find out more about it.

I read a short piece once about a man who absolutely hated some little blue glass kittens that his wife insisted be on the front window sill. She put them there, he would move them. She put them back. Over and over, 30 or 40 years worth.

When his wife passed, he put those little blue glass kittens back on the window sill, to remind him of her.

My grandpa, used to complain and complain that he could not sleep through my grandmas window rattling snoring.

When she passed, he could only complain that he could not sleep without her snoring.

We have a large tray that our coffee pot, sugar, his coffee cup, a spoon rest and spoon sit on in our kitchen. Every day, when hubby makes his coffee, he sets the sugar on the counter. I move it to the tray. He takes it off.

It used to make me angry. Everyday. I really had to think of how much I would miss that if he were to pass.

Those little things. Those little rituals. How important will they be in the passing of time?

How are we rooted to these rituals?

I remember – They are exactly what life is about. And I smile.