Sometimes It’s Just a Small Thing 

What does it take to turn a bad day around? Sometimes all it takes is a small happening to change the way we feel: our outlook, our mood, or the outcome of a situation. Have you ever found a few dollars in a not recently used jacket pocket? Perhaps having someone that we hold dear call our name or say, “I love you.” Coming home, we’re greeted by a wagging tail and a lick of a kiss from our dogs. Many small things like climbing into our cars on a frigid morning and it starts on the first try, a song airs on the radio that opens floodgates of memories, or taking a hot shower, climbing into a pair of soft pajamas, and collapsing into bed at the end of a long day can do wonders for our souls.

How about hearing the song of the first robin of spring or goodbye honks of geese passing high overhead at the end of autumn? What thoughts stir, hearing the whistle of a distant train? What wakens in the brain when we’re assaulted by the aromas in a bakery or a tobacco shop? Is it the excitement of the hunter or the tenderness of an artist that emerge when a deer appears at the edge of a meadow? Does the faint tinkle of a waterfall call us to draw near?

The human psyche is a tender, fragile thing. Yet it is resilient and can be renewed or altered with the smallest of things. Singing a song, saying a prayer, opening a door for someone, these are all small things, but may change our outlook or the direction of someone’s day. A kind word, a word of encouragement, a gentle reproof or correction may have repercussions far beyond what we can see at the time. Be kind, be cheerful, be a friend, we may never know when we become the small thing in someone’s life.