Friday night and I’m sitting at the kitchen table staring at twenty two tiny shiny ball-bearings as they pattern a paper towel with soak rings of degreaser. I’d rather be down the pub of course but although I’m annoyed about all these last minute hitches and all the extra jobs I’ve now got to get done to be ready for the off on Monday morning, I’m also mesmerised by the ball-bearings. I didn’t intend to strip down wheel bearings the weekend before we head off. In fact I’ve never stripped a wheel bearing in my life and it didn’t seem like a good time to start, but needs must and, thankfully, YouTube’s a great teacher. So here I am half way through the job, cleaning ball-bearings and thinking how overlooked and important they are.
I often get moments like this before these journeys, when in the chaos and turmoil of keeping the ‘ordinary’ life going while getting ready to hit the road, my attention is caught by something simple and revelatory. Like ball-bearings. I’ve never given them much thought before but stop and think for a moment and you realise each one of these twenty two weeny little silver balls is critical to our journey. It really won’t be, can’t be a smooth journey unless they are well looked after. They are little, overlooked and important; and they need and deserve a little of my love and attention.
As I wash and dry each one, picking it up gently with tweezers, placing it in the bed of grease I’ve carefully prepared, making sure it’s cosy and comfortable with the others, I wonder what else is little, sometimes overlooked and important in my life. And what I might do to give them a little TLC in the weeks ahead.
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