6am is the new 7am: it's bright, sunny, and the multifarious voices of birds are incredibly loud, rambunctious, busy. Veggie Dog has been mistaken by these cues, waking us an hour earlier. I don't really mind, though. I grab a blanket from bed, bring it outside to wrap myself in, sit on the porch and enjoy the early morning coolness while drinking my coffee.

Yesterday, I stayed on the porch longer, into the afternoon. It was warm and very windy. I finished a book I was reading called The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference, which I found in the resume section of the library. It was not a life changing read, but it was hopeful and pleasant in its simplistic assessment of how small acts of thoughtfulness and paying attention to details can have unforeseen, positive repercussions.

The authors write, "Small, seemingly insignificant acts are powerful agents of change and growth--if we pay attention to them. . . . As Canadian explorer Jamie Clark, who reached the summit of Mount Everest step by careful step, puts it: 'There's not only power in small, but magic, too.' That crucial message often gets buried in the minutiae of our everyday lives. So we screen, filter out, and gloss over insignificant, trifling details in order to navigate the hectic world in which we live. And there is some wisdom and value in that: We need to ignore a lot of the 'noise' to get on with our lives. . . . However, in the process of ignoring the utterly useless and insignificant, we have given short shrift to something that is extraordinarily essential--the small gestures, words, and daily kindnesses that speak volumes about our attention to detail, and our commitment and concern to effect change . . . Sometimes the small, spontaneous acts make all the difference."