Posts Tagged: change and small things

“A Day of Small Kindnesses”

On February 7, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

There are two interesting, seemingly unrelated emphases today.  First, there is my personal emphasis.  Today, my 12-step affirmation is, “Today, by God’s grace, I am being kind to my own self, and kind to all my other selves as well.”  So, I prayed that God would help me to live out this affirmation—“to make it real,” as a good friend likes to say.

Second, today is National Wear Red Day.  Did you know that?  I didn’t, and I found out rather accidentally.  Or was it fortuitous?

I went out for a long walk/run with my little dog.  We left before sunrise.  We walked (and ran a little) down to the bay, and then along the bay.  I was soon seeing signs along the promenade, signs with brief facts and warnings about cardiac risks for women.  I thought of my own lovely lady, and wondered how her heart was doing.

Remembering my affirmation about kindness, I decided to look for people to encourage all day long.  I encountered a couple of young ladies wearing red shirts and carrying signs.  “Thanks for what you are doing,” I said.  “It makes me think about my lovely wife of forty-six years.  I want her with me for a lot longer.”

They thanked me, seemingly touched by my words.  “And you’re wearing a red shirt!” one of them said.

“Strictly accidental,” I confessed.  “I wasn’t aware of the emphasis today.”  I walked on.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about National Wear Red Day:

“It occurs in America on the first Friday in February each year, where people wear red.

The Heart Truth—is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Designed to warn women of their #1 health threat, The Heart Truth created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wakeup call to American women.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Wear_Red_Day, accessed 02-07-2020).

When I turned around to head back toward home, I was starting to cross the street.  Traffic was heavy and the walk light was a long time coming on.  A bevy of red-shirted ladies was waiting to cross the street from the other side.  They were carrying many more signs.  A gust of wind blew one of the signs out of a young lady’s hands, and onto and across the street.  The now sign-less young lady was heard to say, “Oh no!”

The sign flew across the road and sidewalk, lodging against the concrete railing above the bay.  Another gust, and it would be in the bay.  I ran back and retrieved it before it could go aquatic, and made it back (just in time) to cross the street.  I was loudly cheered and thanked by the ladies, way out of proportion to what my small act was worth.  (And no, if another wind gust had taken the sign, I would not have jumped into the bay after it.)

A friend of mine—the same one who likes to “make it real”—gave me another wonderful saying today: “It’s the small things where all the change happens.”  That is so.

Thanking someone for doing something worthwhile is such a small kindness.  So is rescuing a sign from blowing into the bay.  But we all need to begin somewhere.  I certainly have to start small.

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