Find Comfort In The Little Things.

In these hard economic times, nothing is certain. It seems the all-mighty recession has plagued us with fears - fears that our lives will forever spin out of control at alarming rates. As the stock market plummets, our fears skyrocket. Everything seems to be changing. If only we could count on one thing, one tradition, to remain constant. Maybe that would give us some comfort and a much-needed dose of hope.

Bottom line: Everyone seems to be looking for stability.

I know I am. In fact, it's something I've been looking for. Maybe that's why I came to find myself, a few days before the Fourth of July, ruminating on that age-old expression. Knee-high by the Fourth of July.

I don't know where the phrase originated, but I often wondered how they came up with knee-high as a form of measurement. And knee-high year after year? It almost screamed of - dare I say it? - consistency.

I knew I had to do some investigating. The kind of investigating that went beyond any search results Google could spit back to me in 2.1 seconds. I needed to get out there in the field - literally - for this one.

Now I'll admit that I had a bit of help here. I would have done it myself, but being less than 4-feet tall, my idea of knee-high probably isn't the average person's idea of knee-high. So I entrusted my mother, who is a sturdy 5'7", to check out the state of the corn. As we walked to the field across from our house during a late-afternoon drizzle, I could see the corn peeking up against the gray horizon. As we got closer, the corn seemed to grow. And grow. And grow.

I began to sense a dose of hope and stability in those green fields.

Turns out, we were right. My mother marched into that field, and came back proclaiming, "They're almost as tall as me."

Mission accomplished.

I look at those fields of corn with different eyes now. The stalks of corn remain unchanged, year after year. Like clockwork, they sprout to life. Full of vim and vigor.

In life, we may not know what lies ahead. And yes, that may scare us a great deal. But at least we can find some safety and solace in knowing that every year without fail, those beautiful ears of corn will indeed be knee-high by the Fourth of July.

It might be something small (and delicious, of course), but don't discount the small things to remind you that there still is consistency in this spinning world. Some things, thankfully, never change.

So take a look in your backyard. Stability might just be a few feet away. Take it from me: Who knew I'd find stability right in my very own backyard? OK, not technically in my backyard, but it was within walking distance, so I'll take that as a blessing right there.

Come to think of it, maybe that should be corn's new slogan: Corn, the definition of stability.

It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?