Some years ago, an elderly lady in New Zealand arranged her own birthday party. She was a wealthy, well mannered single woman with a pleasant disposition. Although it was her 80th birthday, she was still energetic and witty enough to prepare all the food herself and decorate her dinner table as well.
She did it so tastefully; with a white table cloth, beautiful flower arrangements, white candles, embroidered cotton serviettes, and elegant, shiny silverware.
The food looked so appetizing that even the eyes had a feast, not to mention the wonderful aroma that filled the whole house with all her cooking.
Amongst her many guests that night was also a young boy, about 17 years old. She didn’t know him too well, but she was very much befriended with his parents, who were unable to attend that night.
When everyone sat down to dine, this boy saw a little grub on his salad dish, blending in quite well with the lettuce. He knew that all the food was prepared by the hostess herself. Therefore, not to embarrass the old lady, he looked around to make sure that no one was watching, then, carefully with his knife and fork wrapped the fleshy green caterpillar into a lettuce leaf, placed the whole package into his mouth and washed it down with a drink.
About 15 years later, when the boy had children of his own, this little deed of kindness towards this old lady, which was never spoken of, was almost forgotten. Almost, but it was brought back to his memory quite vividly after he received a letter from a solicitor, which stated, that the wealthy old lady on the other side of town had died.
She nominated this young man to inherit her whole estate. Her explanation for why she chose him for the inheritance was written in her will. It stated: ”Because this young man was caring enough not to embarrass me in front of all my guests on the night of my 80th birthday.”
Sometimes we have no idea how we touch peoples life’s with little things – in a very big way.
Do little things still matter to people? In the olden days they used to say: “Whoever does not honor the cent, is not worthy of the dollar.” How times have changed. Our grandchildren won’t even know what a one cent piece looks like, let alone honor it.
These days we want bigger houses, more money, better cars, more rights, more luxuries, etc. It may seem that only the big things are worth counting, but in some areas of life it is not how much we have, but how much we make of what we have that matters most.
If we think about music for example, we have only 7 full notes and 5 half notes to play with. Depending on the instrument, these 12 notes can come in 2 to 5 different octaves. But, throughout history, with these few notes available to us, we have created so many different styles of music, all over the world, and we continue creating new styles as time goes on.
We have classical music in all its verities, opera music, country and western, pop and rock and roll, jazz, church hymnals, all kinds of dance music, chamber music, waltzes, folk songs etc. just to mention a few.
And on top of that, every country has created its own style. The Spanish and Italians play their own romantic songs with the guitars and mandolins.
The southern Germans play their “oompapa” music on the accordion at their famous October feasts.
The Swiss yodel along with their mountain songs from the alps, accompanied by the zithers.
Then we have the russian folk tunes, played with the balalaika, unmistakably Russian style. What about the melodious songs from the islanders, the Maoris, Tongans and the people from Vanuatu. They also have their own style of music. 
Their voices are just heavenly. We have the Jewish style, the Bulgarian, the French style, it goes on and on.
All these different kinds of music were composed with the humble 12 notes.
These notes are merely at our service. It depends on our mindset: feelings, imagination, talents and our love for music, which determines how we use these notes and what we make of them. This principle can be applied to many other areas of life. In reality, it is not how much we have, but how much we make of what we have that matters most in life. As the saying goes: It is not the size of the dog that matters in a fight, but it’s the size of the fight in the dog that matters.
Do little things still matter? Just think of the olympic games. One hundreds of a second decides whether an athlete will be the world champion, or never spoken of again. Little things make big things possible.
This happens in the positive, as well as in the negative. Just imagine, a therapist goes to a sign writer to have a sign written to further his business. By mistake the sign writer leaves just a little gap between the E and the R. It is just a little gap of nothing, but the whole sign becomes not only useless, but even damaging to his business and reputation.
THERAPIST THE RAPIST
I would like to direct your thoughts to the famous Helen Keller, who was born as a healthy child in 1880. Due to an illness, she lost her hearing and eyesight at the early age of only nineteen mo
nths. In spite of her struggles coping with her misfortune, she learned, with the help of a tutor, how to communicate with someone by spelling words into hands. Later on in life she also learned how to speak. Then she became an American author, political activist and lecturer at universities. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Art degree. She traveled a lot, was outspoken in her opposition to war, campaigned for women’s suffrage and workers rights, as well as many other progressive causes.
One day her friend came back from a walk in the woods. When Helen asked her: “How was your walk?” She replied: “Ah, nothing special.” Helen said: “Nothing special? When I go for a walk in the woods I can feel the fresh air blowing through my hair. I can feel the warmth of the sun filling my whole body. When I touch the trees and the wind vibrates the branches I can feel the energy of nature going right through me. I can feel the leafs crackling under my shoes. I can soak in the most beautiful smell of moss and flowers, and you are telling me ‘It is nothing special’, although you have eyes to see it all, and ears to hear it all?”
Little things that matter to people are not always visible. There are more ways to being blind than just not being able to see.
Helen Adams Keller in 1904 (1880-1968) Written by Sonja Baumung