Little things are important to notice. They’re interesting to experience. We look and find ourselves doing “little things” that affect those around us. Little things can transform into bigger things.

But what do you see other people doing that affects others? What makes you proud? Or embarrassed because someone is doing something you think you “should” (don’t like that word) be doing? Or surprised, because you hadn’t thought of that action or seen or noticed it before? Noticing new things could certainly be on our list of “little things that can change the world”!

This list of things others do began on one of my bus rides. A woman got on, moving slowly, carrying multiple grocery bags. She was one of those people who was so cheerful she had everyone else on the bus smiling and engaged. Apparently she was familiar to those who rode this bus route at about this time. Suddenly, in a residential neighborhood, the driver stopped the bus. Safely, but not at a bus stop. The woman got up to gather her bags and the driver watched her get off the bus carrying as much as she could. The driver then got up, gathered the rest of the woman’s bags, took them off the bus, and (after also picking up the bags the woman was carrying) put all the bags on the woman’s front porch. The driver then got back on the bus and proceeded to the next stop. Matter of factly. I’m pretty sure this action is not suggested in any bus driver’s manual. The driver was just making a difference.

On the way back, as I was waiting for a bus near a grocery store, a woman came out and, as she also waited for the bus, moved shopping carts that people had abandoned at the bus stop back to the store’s parking lot. She also picked up some major trash that was lying there. Somehow I hadn’t thought of doing either of these things, but she just matter of factly did this. Again making a difference.Later, while visiting my favorite library, I overheard my librarian friend, the one I said usually appears only when I need her, carefully and cheerfully going over and over with an apparently confused woman the procedure for applying for a passport, including proper forms of payment and what each of them meant. 

Finally, remembering that supporting artists is important, I ended up at a corporate gallery where a friend was exhibiting. While there, I talked with a woman in her early 20s who was helping manage the exhibit. 

“What are you interested in?,” I asked.

“Oh,” she answered. “I’m writing a book on how different population areas, such as urban and rural, react to politics and change and how they might communicate with each other more effectively.”

And so, she, too, is changing the world.

On other days, things happened to affect my personal world. 

“Where have you been?” Julie, the woman I mentioned in our last post “Little Things,” asked me. “I’ve been praying for you.” 

Having a door held open for me just because. A friend matter of factly fixing my jewelry box. People bringing flowers when they come to dinner. 

So, notice. What is happening around you that you now know is a “little thing that can change the world”? Give thanks. Another little thing. And so it goes.

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All photos by Harriet Kaufman
From an exhibit at the Stay and Wonder Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Artist: Mary Barr Rhodes – http://marybarrrhodes.com