My “granddaughter” will be five years old in a couple of weeks. What can I get her for her birthday? I want it to be something special.

I’m thinking of the longing in her voice and eyes when she washed her hands with a bar of pink soap at my home. I don’t know where this bar of soap came from. It was a gift from someone. I had kept it wrapped for a long time and then decided to just use it. It became special when Sarah took delight in it. So I decided I will find some pink bar soap and give it to her for her birthday.

This has been easier said than done. After trying several gift shops and a bed and bath store, I was advised that a certain department store carried a large assortment. When I arrived at this store I learned they had none. I asked three different attendants, as I wasn’t sure anyone of them was taking my question seriously. Except, that is, for an older woman who was working at the checkout counter. As I was leaving I told her about my futile search for pink bar soap. She smiled. The look on her face and in her eyes told me she was interested in my mission. With great confidence she said, “Go next door to the Garden Center.”

The Garden Center??? I was confused. “Yes,” she said, and then she laughed and added, “It’s a fun place to go even if you don’t find what you are looking for.”

Against my intuitive doubts, I went to the Garden Center. When I asked for bar soap the attendant there looked at me with compassion and gently explained that they didn’t carry soap. Then, as though an idea suddenly struck her, she said, “unless there could be some in the corner where we have some lotion.”

Since I was in the store anyway I decided to check. Imagine my amazement when I saw three bars of soap resting on a shelf. They were the only bars in the store. They were pink!!! They were expensive but I bought all three.

The lesson was worth it. It’s all about the journey. It would have been fun to visit the Garden Center, anyway.