Coffee and garbage

 If you've been married for any length of time you come to understand love is not always in the grand gestures, but the small considerations. My husband and I like our coffee our own way. He likes his extra strong and I'm a half caffeinated light weight. Fortunately we most often wake at different times so we have our small 4cup pot to ourselves.  I always wake up to a clean coffeemaker and always thought how sweet is that?  I'm ashamed to say that it took me several years to return the favor.  Such a simple act. But I now always empty the grounds and rinse the pot so my husband has the same clean coffeemaker he has always offered me.

When we moved into our condo several years ago we had two very sad looking garbage receptacles. One for recycling and one for regular garbage.  I finally splurged and bought one of those fancy stainless steel combination trash bins. Replacing the bags was tricky to get it just right.  I even watched a video to figure it out. My husband is wonderful about emptying the garbage, no overflowing bins or arguments there. But this intricate placement of the bag escapes him. After emptying the full bag he places the fresh bag in the container for me to work my magic. I often think I must give him a tutorial at some point in case.. ..you know.  But for now this is our system and it works. Him doing his part..me doing mine.  Working together in the small tasks with no judgement, only cooperation and love. Each time I see this and smile, silly I know. Love is often present in the smallest of details. Small enough to escape our view.  But St Therese of Liseaux remind us  "Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love."