#38 The Adventure to Great Soap & How to Find it: The Gift of Simple Things

There’s something about the simple things that stays with us. A note left in a lunch bag, a meal set on the table after a long day, a bar of soap wrapped with care. None of those things screams extravagance. None of them requires grand gestures. But they linger, don’t they? They linger because they carry something bigger than the thing itself — they carry thought, heart, and the kind of love that doesn’t need to shout to be heard.

Years ago, when Mike and I were figuring out how to slip into full adulting, I stayed at Mike's parents' for about a year. I don't recall the details that got me there, but I was there. Now, Mike's Mom has always treated me with kindness and care, like I have always been one of her kids. She always moves through her days with others in mind, she's all heart through and through. My time staying with them came with a couple bumps in the road, but overall, it wasn't too bad. Mike's mom really shines through to me from those days. Both Mike and I were working full-time, so we kept different schedules from his mom and dad, who worked for the local school system. They were both up & out of the house daily before sunrise, and home before we were.

Most nights, Mike's mom cooked dinner for her & Mike's dad. She always invited me to sit and have dinner with them. Sometimes she would see that my laundry basket was getting full and would wash my clothes. She was busy enough taking care of her own things, but still cared enough to help make my days a bit easier or showed me that she cared.

Those little gestures — inviting me to dinner, folding a load of my laundry — didn’t feel monumental at the time. They were just her moving through the day, quietly noticing, quietly caring. But looking back, those moments stayed with me. They taught me something about love and attention: it doesn’t always have to be big or dramatic. Sometimes the truest care is woven into the everyday, into the unnoticed, into the gestures that might seem ordinary until you realize how deeply they matter. (and too, I was being blessed with a wonderful Mother-in-law, Mike and I hadn't gotten there yet. That would be another 5-7 years down the road before we married.

It was in those evenings, sitting at the kitchen table while the world moved around us, that I began to see what it means to give yourself in the small ways — to make someone else’s day lighter, easier, warmer, without fanfare or expectation. That’s the gift I try to honor in the work we do, in the soaps we make, in the moments I choose to notice and appreciate. With every bar or item purchased, we hope that you can feel the love of small gifts.

Because in the end, it’s the small things that linger. The quiet gestures, the little pieces of care, the thought put into something made with heart — they add up. They remind us that love doesn’t always arrive with a flourish; sometimes it slips in softly and stays with us in the spaces we least expect. That’s the kind of gift I hope to share, one simple, thoughtful bar of soap at a time.