We all know what it’s like to be the “little” guy.

On my walk this morning, my friend and I walked past this tiny grey creature in the middle of the trail. He was so little. He didn’t move. He didn’t make any noises. We thought he was dead. (We’ve seen a few critters on our morning walks, so seeing him was not much a surprise.)

But on our second time around the path, we both noticed that he was a slightly different place than he was before. As we both were trying to remember how he was before, we noticed a big black lab approaching. And then this little guy started to move. Well, we had to do something! We couldn’t just leave him there! We certainly didn’t want the dog to see him, so we thought it would be best to move “Gray” safely away from anything much bigger than him. (SIDE NOTE: this guy was smaller than a mouse…I think he was a vole.)

So, I picked him up and carried him to the far side of the trail, near a small tree and mulch, so he wouldn’t get lost in the grass.

Neither one of us expected what happened next…

…this little guy was so tiny, that he could barely walk and ended up rolling down the hill a little bit! It was VERY cute and funny.

After rolling down the hill another time or two, we left him there. We had other things to do.

But as we continued on our way back home, we didn’t say too much about what we just did. And I’m pretty sure my friend was thinking the same think I was…that it’s fun to help the “little guy” out once in a while.

In the end, we both got something out of taking a small amount of time from our normal busy days.

Honestly, we almost walked right past him and didn’t even see him.

But this post today is more than about some little guy that we happened to meet on our walk…it’s about something much bigger.

Let me ask you a question:

How many times have we had an opportunity to do something and kept walking instead?

People today are very focused on one thing…

THEMSELVES.

It’s wrong and we all know it.

We argue about every little thing. We blame the person next to us instead of taking some personal ownership. We find a shortcut instead of understanding why the long way is better.

We do whatever we can to ignore “the little guy” and pretend their very existence is so minor we shouldn’t even waste our time.

But helping someone else doesn’t take anything away from us…

In fact, it does just the opposite.

Taking a moment out of our day to aid someone else makes us feel purposeful and leaves us feeling good about the actions we took…just because we could.

We always have choices. My friend and I could have never looked down and never would have seen “Gray” — let alone help him. I may not know what happens to him after we left him (that might be a good thing), but I know more than others would have.

And that makes me feel pretty good today.

Plus, one day, you and I might be the “little guy” and “what goes around, comes around.”

Michelle A. Homme 2016 ©