For several weeks, an older woman in town had not been seen outside much.
Usually, she was the one who waved from her porch, watered the flowers along the sidewalk, and remembered everyone’s name. But after a fall and a short hospital stay, her porch remained empty.
One afternoon, a young girl walking home with her mother noticed the curtains were closed.
She asked, “Do you think she is lonely?”
Her mother answered, “She might be.”
The little girl did not say much after that.
The next morning, the woman opened her front door and found a small jar filled with wildflowers. Around it was tied a crooked ribbon, and tucked beneath it was a handwritten note:
“I miss your wave. I hope you feel better soon.”
There was no name.
The following day, another jar appeared.
Then another.
Soon, a loaf of homemade bread was left beside the flowers. Someone else placed a card there. Another neighbor quietly rolled the woman’s garbage bin back toward the house.
Nobody planned it.
Nobody announced it.
One small act had simply reminded the neighborhood to pay attention.
A week later, the woman stepped back onto her porch.
She sat down slowly, wrapped in a sweater, and waved at every person who passed.
The little girl who had left the first flowers shown a big grin to the woman~ as she stood across the street and waved back.
It was ~ as if~ just seeing each other for one more moment was something they each longed for in some way.
The little girl never told the woman the flowers were from her.
She did not need recognition.
She only wanted the woman to know that even though they had never truly known one another personally, her presence still mattered.
She was valued.
She was recognized.
She was appreciated.
She was seen.
And the fact that she had been missed revealed something beautiful~ in many quiet and unexpected ways, she had been known all along.
Some kindness arrives loudly, with applause and attention. Other kindness is left quietly at a doorstep. Both can change a life, but sometimes the smallest act is the one that brings an entire neighborhood back together. ~ Deliverance Hope
Copyright ~ Deliverance Hope ~ There’s Always Hope Publishing & Media, LLC All Rights Reserved
Keep Goin’ ‘Round Town
There’s always another story waiting just around the corner.
