By Kathy Brown.
When I went to get groceries earlier this week, I noticed hearts and “thank you” signs all over town, so I decided to take a drive today, with camera in (my daughter’s) hand to document the thoughtful and caring community that we live in. The hearts that I saw weren’t just the hearts made by the Bottaro family (see article here) though there were plenty of those, nor were they just at the homes of essential workers. 
There were hearts made on pallets, scrap wood, hung on trees and mailboxes. Thank you signs graced lawns, roads and driveways. There were signs of made of wood, and ones made of paper. Some were painted, some were hand colored. It is the way that people say thank you to the essential workers who live in our community. The people who work in hospitals, deliver our mail, keep our lights on, keep our oil tanks full, keep Netflix going, dispense our medicine, keep the shelves stocked at stores and ring us out when we buy things, cook food when we don’t feel like cooking ourselves, and grow flowers to brighten our lives, are all essential.
All the people who live in our community are essential!
I drove by the Thankful Arnold House, where someone put paper hearts in every window, Parmelee Farm which spelled out THANK YOU on little hearts on stakes in the lawn, True Value in Killingworth that had Thank You painted on two pallets down by the road. Someone made what looks like a topiary heart bush on their front lawn in Higganum. Was it there before this pandemic? Probably. But in this time, it takes on new meaning.
It reminds me of the ending of How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. In case you aren’t familiar with the iconic holiday story, the Grinch steals everyone’s Christmas trees, presents, and stockings, in his effort to stop Christmas from coming because he hated to see the Whos so happy, when he was not. Now I am not comparing our government to the Grinch, however, sometimes it seems like as more and more executive orders are released (we’re up to 33!), more and more of our joys are being taken away from us. And yet…
…The Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
Somehow, all those executive orders closing down small businesses and schools, among other things, isn’t stopping our community from showing love and concern for others. Whether it’s taking meals or groceries to shut-ins, hanging a heart on a tree or mailbox in front of an essential workers house, shopping at our small businesses in our community knowing that it’s more important now than ever before, or making masks and giving them away free, many, many people in our community are showing the love they have for others, and how essential everyone is in the community in which we have chosen to live.
It makes my heart full to live in a community such as this one.
Photos by G. Brown.
