Nice Notes

Earlier this month, I celebrated my favorite holiday: Easter. During this time of year, I always get wrapped up in the fun of family time, candy, and traditions, but it's also always been a great time for me spiritually. Taking the 40 days of Lent to really reflect on my life and then letting it all go and celebrating on Easter is very therapeutic for me. This year, I decided to give myself a little exercise to prepare for the big celebration.

Every day, for 40 days, I wrote down at least one nice thing someone else did for me and at least one nice thing I did for someone else. I put all the scraps of paper in a jar and didn't read through them until after Easter. It's a pretty simple exercise, but it was surprisingly challenging and extremely rewarding.

At first, I found it difficult to go through a whole day and then try to remember the interactions I had with others. Some of the nice things that happened throughout the day were small moments that I often overlooked. As time progressed, however, I realized that most nice things happened in small doses. There were some days when I had big heart-to-heart conversations with people, but most days consisted of holding a door open for someone, picking up trash, or giving someone a few dollars.

Writing down these moments each day made me realize how important it is to be present in our lives. It's so easy to feel hopeless or cynical about the world, but if we open our eyes, there are beautiful and powerful relationships forming everywhere, even if they only last for 30 seconds.

Reading through these notes also had a second benefit that I didn't expect. They helped me to remember things I would have forgotten. They served as a mini journal, preserving a few details of each day that triggered memories of bigger events as well. It made me smile to remember things like getting lunch with friends, visiting with my parents, making new friends, traveling, giving and receiving compliments, going on dates, throwing parties, and doing all the other little things that filled the minutes in between. It's amazing how much can happen in 40 days!

Although I haven't continued writing nice things down since Lent ended, I do find myself noticing some of the little things on occasion. It has made me a happier person to be able to notice the good in the world. Maybe someday I'll start writing myself some nice notes again. Then, when I get stressed, I'll go back to my little jar and read through some of the things that made me smile.