Just recently a long-term friend popped over and presented me with a small surprise gift. To cut to the nub of this blog message, this pocket-sized present and small act of kindness has already meant so much to me, and I will remember and treasure it for many years. This small gift is certainly something so big and meaningful to me – let me explain.
My long-term friend is Amanda, and earlier this year she kindly accepted the offer of becoming one of our ‘roadtesters’ for our upcoming book My Manifesto: A compassionate guide to reveal your best life. Amanda was one of a group of twenty who worked through an early draft of our book, reading the 7-Steps and completing the 21 exercises, on their individual journey to creating their personal manifesto.
Without giving too much away, in Chapter 19 (page 310 in our current draft layout) I write this:
How lucky are we to have people to care for, things on our to-do lists, and a manifesto that we have personally created to guide and inspire us?
It reminds me of a well-known quote, often attributed to Tom Bodett, that says, ‘A person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.’
I’m still on the lookout for a fridge magnet with this quote on it, and then it can join my peace magnet and proudly hold up my current personal manifesto.
Well, as Amanda popped in the other day with a little envelope, what I discovered inside was a fridge magnet containing the above quote from Tom Bodett. It wasn’t that Amanda had by chance come across such a fridge magnet, it was that she had designed the magnet and had it professionally printed just for me. It’s printed in Amanda’s favourite shade of blue and now sits beautifully on our fridge. I get to read this quote each day, and think how lucky I am to have people in my life who have the ability to do something small that is so big!
Thank you Amanda.