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There are bad pinches and there are good pinches. It is much like salt. Too much of it can ruin a dish. But I happen to know that just a pinch of salt can make the flavor of something pop.
A pinch doesn’t always make one feel warm and fuzzy, though.
As a little girl, there were two different kinds of pinches I remember: the kind that was wonderful, like the kind my grandfather would gently give me right on the tip of my nose after he would kiss me hello. And then there was the one that would leave a sting on the back of my arm or hi-nee from my parent when I would misbehave in public.
Some pinches can hit ya right in the feels. Like the moments that pinch your heart.
I can remember the very second each of my children were born. I can remember how my heart felt like it would explode because I was overwhelmed with joy as they took their first breath of life (and screamed their bloody heads off). I could literally feel a lovely wrench in my chest. It is the kind of pinch I will never forget and always hold with me.
Then there was the moment someone I loved passed away. The pinch I felt in my heart was there, but much different from that of the joy I knew from life being given. I distinctly remember standing where I was for what seemed like forever, thinking how much I was going to miss them; how I thought the terrible, achy pinch in my heart would never go away. And I must say, though it has eased up some, the scar from that particular pinch is still there.
I’ve been in many a precarious position in my life. Sometimes I put myself there, and sometimes it was merely the circumstances. But either way, I wound up in a pinch.
When I was a teenager, I made the conscious decision to go into a store with someone I knew was going to shoplift. I didn’t take anything. Well actually, I was GOING TO. But at the last second I chickened out. I was questioned when she got caught because I was with her. Luckily the cameras showed I had not taken anything but simply because I was with her I found myself in quite a pinch! (For the benefit of the reader needing an ending to that particular story, I did NOT end up in the slammer.)
Back when I was a young, single mom of two small children, my tire blew out on the highway. I had never changed a tire before, let alone on a busy road. (I sure did learn FAST!!) Even though that was something out of my control, I was most DEFINITELY in a pinch! (No worries, Folks. As you can see that one turned out all right, for I am writing this many years later.)
I used to always wonder what a pinch-hitter was when I heard the term used in baseball, until someone explained to me it was a substitute batter – someone to replace the batter when the team is in a pinch.
I married my Pinch Hitter. He is definitely my substitute batter when I find myself in a pinch. Example: the other day I had a catering gig that called for – wait for it……SIX-HUNDRED cake ball truffles. Now these beauts cannot be stacked on top of one another or their gorgeous candy coatings and lovely decorations will crack and break. I was going to have to make several trips back and forth in order to get the beloved cake ball truffles to their destination with no harm to befall them! But my Pinch Hitter got me out of the pinch in the coolest way possible.
It’s too hard for my non-engineer-way-of-thinking brain to explain, but essentially, he took some cardboard and wine bottles we use for projects (not the hardest part of my job, emptying those bottles......wink!) from the garage, and did this:
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Hence, it took one trip, and all the truffles were unscathed.
Think about the pinches – the bad ones and the good ones. Some of them hurt and can leave a sting or even a scar. Some of them are wonderful and make you remember the joy life can bring. Think of the pinch hitters in your life that have helped you make it through something unscathed. Or perhaps you were that pinch hitter a time or two. Either way, with every pinch comes growth in our lives – like the pinch of salt that can make the flavor of something pop.