Week 1 : Do Something Small
“All it may take to restore someone’s trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.”
Reading: Read the introduction. That’s right, it’s just the introduction this week and read with a highlighter pen in hand to mark your favorite passages. Take your time. Allow Remen’s words the room to find your spark of life, to blow on it, if you will. Consider, too, how you react to the word “blessing” and Remen’s repeated use of the word “God.” Is this a positive for you, a negative, or neutral? Pay attention to your reactions.
Kind Action: Complete a very, very small kind action that does not require a lot of you. Consider this action as being a minor tune-up on the engine of the universe. In its “small-ness” it may almost seem insignificant. But as a “tune-up,” it is part of an ongoing maintenance effort that prevents a major problem from happening down the line.
Optional Idea: Begin a “Blessings Journal.” This is a small notebook that you can fit in a pocket or purse and along with a pen be a place where you record the blessings you receive that you might otherwise miss. The driver waving you through the intersection, the smile from the cashier at the grocery store, someone going out of her way to answer your question, these are all kindness blessings. Take time to jot them down.
Link to Book: “My Grandfather’s Blessings”
Kind Living 
I chose to focus this week on observing the “blessings” I recieved. There were three that made me feel really pleased and appreciative.
A woman I met at a party in Febuary, called me this week and invited me to join her and three friends to attend a play this Sunday. I was very excited as I had lost the paper with her name and number!
Then when I called the neighbors next door here in Salt Lake for a reference for a carpenter, Jon told me there were two working at the house next door and I should go over and talk to them! I thanked him and although quite nervous because I do not know those neighbors, I started out the door and who did I see on the sidewalk but Jon’s wife Susan, saying she would go with me. I was so thankful and relaxed immediately as she has lived in this neighborhood 27 years and we have only rented here for not quite four months.
And then another blessing came when the neighbors on the other side of the house we rent came over to visit – the man, his wife whom we had not done more than wave at and their 6 month old baby came over and gave us three unused ski tickets which their company had not been able to use due to bad weather during their ski vacation. The tickets had a value of over $280. So I went to ski for the first time at Park City on 20 inches of new powder and had such a great time that we decided to get our season tickets there this coming year.
All of these were totally unexpected acts of kindness from the goodness of the hearts of these people, practically strangers to me. To quote Remen, I felt a true “diaspora of kindnes” surrounding me. So much so that every meeting with the realtor who is helping us I was filled with thankfulness which I passed on. It was a wonderful lesson in the value of “faithfulness” to the practice of kindness reaping rewards.
Hi again Linda and Andy (and others).
I have been focusing on gratitude for small blessings as well this week. I shared earlier that I like to write down 3 things I am grateful for before going to sleep each night. This feels like an extension of that, a reason to be more mindful of blessings throughout the day.
A blessing was meeting a lovely student who has only been in the U.S. for a short time, and figuring out ways for her to get back into her profession. I work as an academic counselor for immigrants and refugees in or wanting to start college. Another big blessing was my flexible work schedule with childcare issues that arose. And thirdly time with family has felt precious and necessary this week. Countless little things also caught my attention – smiles, cuddles with the kids, food blessings, even the unexpected April snowfall.
The class itself and a reason to reread Rachel Bremen’s lovely book is a blessing.