Save the Role-polies!

A few weeks ago on my oldest daughter’s Spring Break, she & I took a walk around a little pond to enjoy the beautiful weather.

As we rounded a corner, she noticed that there were roly-polies EVERYWHERE on the path.

She immediately got to work.

Scooping up as many as she could & taking them across the path to safety.

Now, I’ve taken this walk several times as it’s right across the street from my youngest daughter’s preschool & I have never noticed roly-polies meeting their deaths under my clueless sneakers.

I’d never slowed down enough to notice & I needed someone else who had taken the time to slow down to show me what she saw.

After a few minutes of relocating roly-polies, my daughter realized that she wasn’t really making a dent in the problem. The path was still completely full of little blackish gray bugs as far as she could see.

So she looked up at me & asked me what we should do.

Fighting my urge to say we should give up & go get coffee, I told her we should do the best we can with what we have to give.

Then we celebrate bringing each little bug to safety.

And then we keep walking.

But as we continue along the path, we’ll walk much slower, avoiding doing any harm on our way back to the car.

Because we can’t save them all.

And then I thought of the work we’re doing here at Purse & Clutch.

It can be easy for me to get overwhelmed with wanting to grow bigger & bigger to be able to employ more & more artisans around the world - giving important access to food, stability & safety.

But my daughter helped remind me that we do the best we can with what we have.

Then we celebrate the jobs we are able to sustain year after year.

And then we continue walking along, avoiding doing any harm & sharing what we’ve noticed along the way as we’ve slowed down.

In this season of my life with little kids & one with special needs that will extend this season for me, I’m thankful for the reminder to slow down.

To do what I can with what I have.

To celebrate the impact that we are having on the 50+ artisans we partner with.

And then to keep walking through my day.

What is it for you?

What do you need to slow down to notice?

Or what have you begun to notice that feels overwhelming?

I'd love to hear your thoughts below: