Simple Things Do Matter

            I was busy cleaning the house when my doorbell rang.  When I opened the door, I was surprised to see a friend who I haven’t seen in months. 

“I’ve had these pictures sitting on my front seat for a month and when I saw your car in the driveway, I thought I would drop them off,” she explained.

I thanked her and she apologized that she couldn’t stay long because she was taking a casserole to her friend who had surgery.  We hugged and said our goodbyes and after flipping through the pictures of my daughter at a skate park, I went back to work, the encounter a distant memory.

A few days later, I told a mutual friend about the brief visit and let her know that our friend was doing well, but insanely busy.  During that conversation, the importance of what my friend was doing amidst her chaos hit me.  With everything else she was doing, she took the time to take care of a friend.      

It’s a simple act that is easily overlooked, but when my youngest daughter was born and I was still in the hospital, the neighbors brought food to my husband.  It was nothing fancy, but it was something that helped him through a time when there was so many other things going on.  My brother has similar stories about food deliveries when his children were born. 

Too many times we think that we have to do something big to make a difference, but really the small things can make a change too.  The worst thing that we can do is pass up an opportunity to do something good because we think it’s too small. If you make someone smile or breathe a sigh of relief, you have made a change.  You’ve turned their day around in a good way. 

So, hold the door open for someone, tell the cashier to have a wonderful day, make a phone call to a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, and smile because someone just might need it.