you don"t need to save the crystal for a special day, even water tastes better in a "Fancy Glass"

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Little Things You Do Can Make a Difference

Sometimes the world of a new small business owner can be overwhelming and sometimes even the fast paced life in a big city can make me feel quite small. But I am beginning to appreciate more and more that each day is a sum of many small moments, small steps, small things that you can do to move forward, share love, make the world at least your small part of it, a bit better. Sometimes it is too hard to focus on fixing the big picture- but a small thing can make a difference.

There is this guy in my neighborhood. I am sure he has been here a long time but I never knew anything about him. I still no very little. But this guy, who I don't know has made our little part of tokyo better every day. He's about 60 something, retired I think, older Japanese guy, very healthy. Every morning from about 5 AM he is out in the world walking- this is how I finally found out about him, now that my puppy Archie drags me outside for a morning walk anytime from 4:45-5:30~! (tooo early!) But the thing is, when he walks in his exercise clothes and baseball hat, he does something else too. Instead of just focusing on himself, or thinking about his worries, or just enjoying his morning... he also makes our neighborhood better. It is just a small thing, but he walks with one hand in a working type garden glove and whenever he sees cans or bottles along his walk he picks them up and throws them away in the next recycle bin *there is one next to every vending machine and there are TONS of vending machines. So most people in our neighborhood are probably like me and have noted that we have very little trash compared to other spots in the city- and I always thought it was just good city services in my part of town- BUT it is also because of this guy. A little thing, a small step he takes every day to make where he lives better. Not for thanks or for show - since there are very few people out and about at that time of day... He does it just because.

Little things DO make a difference.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, they do, girl. There are the same people in our neighborhood. And when my partner and I go to the beach, we end up cleaning it up instead of just lying on it. What's amazing though is that people just stare at us instead of joining us. It's okay; I know that I've helped, and like you said, little things do make a difference!

Unknown said...

I love this pay it forward post Lauren. Had my wheels turning, I wondered if u knew where he lived or the next time u see him and then maybe you could leave a gift certificate for 2 drinks (or something) for your restaurant.. What goes around comes around and it's nice to cheer on the "do gooders". Plus, if he is wealthy (they love freebies too) then he's got friends and so on.