MAKING A DIFFERENCE MARCH 2026.

I have often wondered, to myself, why I can frequently be found writing a “wee note”. Yes, its a habit encouraged by the passing years, but at five years old!

Only today my attention was peaked by a Facebook item about an elderly lady who had turned the loss of her husband about by adopting his habit of anonymous encouragement, all by slipping note cards into the library books he worked with throughout his career. It was to prove his widow’s way to keep him close in her heart and memory, and engaging with society whilst become of its “inviable members”. She would observe life by a daily coffee in her local coffee shop and be “inspired”, and write, then drop her hand written note cards inconspicuously, into their lives as they passed her table or through the auspiciousnesses of her favourite co-conspirator, her regular waitress. That way complete strangers who felt a little low and out of charity with life would get a word or two to let them know that they were “seen” and appreciated.

Not that she knew them by name, she would just take a chance and write to them. If it was “discovered by an unexpected person she would take it that God knew that person’s need was the more urgent one. It took a day, when she arrived for coffee without her usual box of notecards and pen feeling particularly “inviable” and useless, for her sadness to be turned into joy by being handed a shoebox. Yes, a common shoebox, but brim full of paper and cards from those who had been her recipients. All of which told her how much her few words of encouragement had done their job. What had those small rectangular wood pulp achieved? The difference that reduced that lonely woman to tears. Overwhelming her with joy. Her quiet way forward after her loss had been useful. God’s way of showing her how valuable her part in his greater plan actually was.

The difference between suicide and life. Between feeling a failures a repent to carrying on doing your best and seeing your child graduate well. Between a life lived with integrity and one of lies and scheming. A life of crime and going straight. Saying yes to drugs and saying a firm “No!” and living to have a happy marriage and raise a happy family. Between sinking into despair and having the courage to say “No!” to an abusive relationship and mean it by walking away. Between having confidence in you and hiding in the shadows of life. A life fulfilled.

A few encouraging words written down on a small card. A couple of minutes to do and it could make someone’s day, year, or even their future life. They have been seen and understood as valued. Why a card? You never know how long it will be needed, kept, or how often it will be referred to in its lifetime or a person’s lifetime.

The inspiration of this simple act of kindness was as a result perpetuated by its recipients and now in turn by those reading the original Facebook post like myself.

It has encouraged my personal sowing of seeds of kindness. Taking the time to pay compliments, as least one per day. Genuine compliments on everything from how well their young child is behaving in the busy supermarket, queue to a person’s deliberate effort to look clean and neat despite very real limitations of infirmity or poverty. The quiet kindness shown without the expectation of acknowledgement or reward. A bright hat or a new hairdo. A highly polished pride and joy or an unsolicited offer of practical help. My own personal postscript to this experience of writing notecards would be to add this on the reverse side ….. Please pass this on to another person in need. Just as encouragement to grow others in the movement to sow seeds of kindness in our world.