Dumb! I say, staring at the box of bandaids I picked up from the pharmacy the weekend we moved in (as one simply never knows). My finger is bleeding, the result of anxious cuticle picking and I’m holding a box of bandaids designed for, I can only imagine, mountain bike collisions.
My partner comes in to the bathroom to assess the level of emergency that justified dumb! and after correctly determining that nothing was wrong, casually said, “well, I’m sure we’ll have big cuts sometimes too.”
I like having little bandaids. When we first moved in, it was on my list of must-haves along with toilet paper, trash bags, and a functioning tea kettle. One of the first things I unpacked and organized was our “sick box.” In our hallway closet, there’s a small container with covid tests, face masks, cough drops, a thermometer, and large cartons of DayQuil, NyQuil, and a vapor rub that I panic bought when I had the flu.
I like knowing that our little home is prepared to weather a storm. We’re setting ourselves up for whatever comes our way and we now have a little one stop shop for any ailment one may find themselves afflicted with.
Unless, of course, that ailment is a self-induced bloody finger at 5:12 PM on a Monday. But maybe there is a lesson here. Despite Pepto Bismol and Ibuprofen. Despite sorting the covid tests by expiration date. Despite showing the “sick box” off to everyone who has come to visit. I wasn’t prepared for the first actual “sick” we had.
But. My partner is right. We will have big cuts sometimes. And when we have those, boy will I be ready. So I wrapped my finger in a tissue and blue painters tape and went for a short run and when I came back, there was a box of small bandaids sitting on the container courtesy of someone who takes really good care of me.
So perhaps the best preparation isn’t always what’s in the cupboard. Perhaps it's in who comes running when they hear self deprecating language from a room a way. Perhaps it isn’t so much about what is in your home… but rather who you are building a home with.
