YOU DON’T HAVE TO DONATE $1
MILLION TO MAKE SOMEONE’S DAY,
INCLUDING YOUR OWN, BETTER.
PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND
EVEN THE SMALLEST GESTURE OF
GENEROSITY ACTIVATES THE
FEEL-GOOD RECEPTORS IN THE
BRAIN. SO GET OUT THERE AND
EMBR ACE THAT GLOWSMALL
WONDERSTHE LIFE-CHANGING
POWER OF TINY
GESTURES
BY ELIZABETH RENZETTIIT WAS ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS
EVERY NEW PARENT DREADS. My
infant son was screaming as if I’d just
dipped him in a bucket of battery acid
(disclaimer: I had not). It felt as if he’d
been screaming for years, though he
was only two months old. I sat with my
howling baby in the food court of
a swanky Los Angeles mall and was
silently judged by strangers watching
me over plates of pad thai.
Until, that is, one woman —
a complete stranger — did something
that saved my sanity and taught me a
lesson about kindness that lingers to this
day. She walked over to me and put her
hand on my shoulder. “This won’t last
forever,” she said. “I know it doesn’t
seem like it right now, but things will get
better. He’ll stop crying. You’ll get some
sleep.” And then this blessed spirit
delivered by the shopping centre gods
disappeared down the escalator.HOW
TO
DO
GOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
ANGELINA BERGENWALL