Welcome to the Simplicity Diaries again with Meek and John Payne. You know, this week, big snow falls here in Northeastern New England in the United States. And we live in an old house and the snow doesn't come off the roof so well and it can get heavy and kind of too much for this old house.
So there we are, the snow starts falling around 6 p.m. in the evening and more and more and it's pelting down and then it starts getting kind of wet. And huge slides of snow come off one upper part of the roof onto the lower part of the roof and it's not looking good. So it's about, I guess about 8.30, 9 o'clock at night and we hear this great big thump and more snow has come down on the lower roof.
So myself and my kids who are teenagers now and my wife, we throw our clothes on our outside warm clothes and out we go. And the roof rake is up there. Kids are on the roof, tied on rope around their waists, shoveling off.
And there we are working to try and get this huge, many tons of snow off the roof. And we worked and we worked and I guess we didn't come in until way past when they should have been in bed. I'm guessing it was around midnight or so.
And we come in and we're wet and we're cold and we're just laughing and just sit down and just warming up. And I don't know, it was a little thing, you know, it was a really little thing. And off they go to bed, they have a quick bath just to warm up and off they go to bed and so do we.
And we sleep and wake up the next morning and, you know, there's a little bit of tension in the house. We're trying to get out to school real quick. And one of the girls is dressed, maybe not, not quite for school, you know, the scene.
And so dad, you know, me, I say something and what potentially could have been, I don't know, a difficult conversation ended up just being okay because I reminded, you know, my kid that, hey, you did so well last night. You were just so really, that was great, wasn't it? And just, just the memory of that just eased that tension. And it's, you know, what it reminded me of is a song by Paul Kelly from my birth country of Australia.
Great singer, songwriter called From Little Things, Big Things Grow. And I'll play it for you in this, in this diary entry. From little things, big things grow.
But it's true, isn't it? Little things, little things. Family life is made up of all those little things clearing off the roof. Who'd have thought that that could help a potential tension the next morning? It's all the little stuff that we do together.
That's what it's all about. Here in the United States, there's this saying, don't sweat the small stuff, right? But I don't know. I'm not sure about that.
I think family life and like a family based camp, you know, you set up that camp tent by tent. You set up that camp little by little. You build that fire pit little by little.
You make that clearing little by little. It's got to do with the little things and to really pay attention to just those little things that build family life for us, that build that secure base. This week, it seemed to me pretty clear that when a situation came up that could have not gone so well, it's almost like in the Simplicity Parenting book, when I write about, you know, sort of family credits or emotional credits, we built up some credits, we deposited something in the family bank, you know, to mix my metaphors.
And then right the next morning, there it was, we made a withdrawal. So from little things, big things grow. OK, bye bye for now.
Gather round people, I'll tell you a story, an eight year long story of power and pride. British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lignari were opposite men on opposite sides. Vestey was fat with money and muscle, beef was his business, broad was his door, Vincent was lean, he spoke very little, he had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor.
From little things, big things grow. From little things, big things grow. The ranger were working for nothing but rations, but once they had gathered the wealth of the land, daily the pressure got tighter and tighter, the ranger decided they must make a stand.
They picked up their swags and started off walking, heck what a creep, they sat themselves down, now it don't sound like much, but it sure got the tongues talking, back at the homestead and then in the town. From little things, big things grow. From little things, big things grow.
Vestey man said, I'll double your wages, eighteen quid a week you'll have in your hand, Vincent said, uh-uh, we're not talking about wages, we're sitting right here till we get our land. Vestey man roared, Vestey man thundered, they don't stand a chance of a cinder and snow, Vince said, if we fall, others are rising. From little things, big things grow.
From little things, big things grow. Then Vincent Lignari boarded an airplane and landed in Sydney, big city of lights, and daily he went round softly speaking his story, to all kinds of men, from all walks of life, and Vincent sat down with big politicians, this affair they told him, it's a matter of state, let us sort it out, while your people are hungry, Vincent said, no thanks, we know how to wait. From little things, big things grow.
From little things, big things grow. Then Vincent Lignari returned in an airplane, back to his country, once more to sit down, and he told his people, let the stars keep on turning, we have friends in the south, in the cities and towns. Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting, to one day a tall stranger appeared in the land, and he came with lawyers, and he came with great ceremony, and through Vincent's fingers, poured a handful of sand, from little things, big things grow, from little things, big things grow.
Well that was the story, of Vincent Lignari, but this is the story, of something much more, how power and privilege, can unmove a people, who know where they stand, they stand in the law. For mangy little things, big things grow From little things, big things grow From little things, big things grow
