The other day I noticed my neighbor’s little girl wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt as she skipped to her front door. Obviously I viewed this as a sign of very good character and I wanted to encourage her, as our next generation, to continue making such wonderful decisions. As such, I thought it only made sense to give her a few of my duplicate Hello Kitty McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. You know, as in investment in our community’s future.
And look what I found at our front door this morning.
As I suspected. Good character.
Seriously though, how adorable is sweet Natalie’s note? It was such a small gesture, but it really meant a lot to me. But lately I’ve experienced a number of little things…acts of kindness…that I’ve realized can make such a difference, including:
– Telling someone to have a good day – and meaning it.
– Asking how someone is doing – and really listening to the answer.
– Holding the door open for someone – and letting him or her enter first.
– Allowing someone to merge ahead of you into traffic.
– Smiling. Big smiles.
– Telling someone how much you enjoy talking to them.
– Showing someone how to get where they need to go instead of telling them.
– Laughing at someone’s silly joke.
– Saying please.
– And saying thank you.
– Showing genuine appreciation.
– Extending helpfulness.
So small. Yet so big. Just an extra helping of manners, kindness, and a smidgen of selflessness. Imagine if every person made an effort to simply incorporate these dozen little gestures into their interactions each and every day. How different would this world be?
Not to mention where we’d be if everybody exchanged Hello Kitty stuff. World problems = solved.
