Sushi and I were talking about all our favorite things.

Now we weren’t in a good mood when we started. The neighbor next door was annoying us with his loud leaf blower (even though there are no leaves to blow), and he was blowing dirt from under a bush toward my back porch where I sit to meet with Mama. In the process, he got dirt in our fresh water and food the Can Opener had just put out for my mama.

This doesn’t set well with my human, either. But she tells us not to worry, and she cleans the porch up and puts out clean water and food for us again. She tells us not to get upset, because she’ll fix it.

And she does. Mom tells us it doesn’t do any good to get upset over little things because there are people going through much worse everywhere. Then she goes and does something nice for him (like taking him dinner), since he’s a lonely old man -(82)- who has never had a family and is barely taking care of himself, but he is always working in the yard for something to do.

The last time he did that, she made dinner for him too that night, and he had tears in his eyes when he opened the door and saw what she had prepared for Him. She had even brought him an ice cream sandwich.

About an hour after dinner that night, My Mama and I were under the bush by the back door, and he came out with a rake, and cleaned up the big mess he had made earlier. Mom hadn’t said anything. She just prayed for him, when she was getting irritated, and then felt the Lord wanted her to do something nice for him. So she did.

When she took him dinner, the tears she saw in his eyes, and the way his face lit up told her she had done the right thing.

A little kindness goes a long way, and it has a way of turning off a grudge.

Maybe if everyone decided to spread kindness instead of fear, and fighting, everyone would be a lot happier.

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