“The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”
–William Wordsworth.
As we travel life’s journey, there will be hills and valleys, as well as many long stretches of ordinary flat terrain. Climbing the hills can be exhilarating, and reaching the top can be cause for celebration. Descending into the valleys of life can be painful and demoralizing. But most of life’s journey seems, on the surface, just plain and ordinary. Both the hills we have climbed and the valleys we have descended into will be vividly and permanently etched in our memories. But most of the rest of our past will be very blurred and may not seem particularly significant. On a cumulative basis, though, most of us will have made our greatest contributions to the well being of others and will have experienced the greatest amount of true happiness during those ordinary times. It is during the routine of day-to-day living that we have the greatest impact on this world. Unless we are total recluses, we will have interaction with other people every day of our lives. It is through this daily interaction with others that we can make a difference in the lives of many of the people we meet.
A beautiful beach is made up of many tiny grains of ordinary sand. A single grain of sand is not very beautiful. Even several thousand grains of sand put together add up to only a small sand pile. But when you have enough grains to make a beach beside the water, it can be a sight to behold. Similarly, a single small act of kindness may not seem like very much in and of itself, but acts of kindness on a daily basis throughout one’s lifetime make for a very beautiful person. And millions of beautiful individuals, all performing acts of kindness on a daily basis throughout their lifetime, make a beautiful world. If just ten percent of the world’s population who are not already practicing random acts of kindness on a daily basis were to begin doing so, the world would be so different that it would be almost unrecognizable.
Random acts of kindness can include such things as a warm smile, a kind word, a compliment, a helping hand, allowing someone to merge into heavy traffic ahead of us and many other things. Sometimes, just being willing to listen to someone who desperately needs to talk about their problems can be a very big act of kindness. Helping someone lift a heavy object or do any other task that requires two people is a gift of a small amount of time and energy that might be of great benefit to the other person. We don’t have to look for opportunities to practice random acts of kindness. They are all around us and involve everyone we know. Acts of kindness are like grains of sand. They may appear tiny and almost insignificant, but each and every one is important.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2025
Allen W. Smith
