Fuchsia Cats

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting." It was a rough week, a stressful week, a homesick-week. On Tuesday, it started to get better. I received a card. I tore open the envelope and I saw the blue eyes of the cats, the fuchsia of the petals, and I smiled. The bright colors jumping off the surface, screamed directly at me, and urged me to feel better and brighter. The hope and sincerity embedded in the deep blue eyes of the kittens rubbed off on me. I was beginning to feel joy. Why does this make me happy? Why do cats in flowers make me happy? I think it was the brightness of the fuchsia, and the energy that it contained, that made me smile. It might have been the softness and innocence of the blue that gave me hope. The words on the inside hardly mattered to me because it was the object itself that made me smile. It did not make everything better, but it made me feel loved. It’s the small things that affect people: a get-well soon card, a greeting while passing in the hallway. A small act can go a long way and that tiny 6 x 2 inch card on that Tuesday morning went a long way for me.