You might be thinking what do two boxes of nails have to do with nutrition, a diet, or a healthy food change. Juanita is a dietitian and nails are not a dietary topic.
No, the two box of nails are not a current fad diet. It is not a health topic.
It is however a story about a quiet gesture of caring that touched my heart.
My neighbor has over the past couple of days been asking me what help I might need to fix up the shed in my back yard. Do you need some wood? I know where I can get some for you. Do you need me haul away anything for you? I can use my truck. Do you need nails? I have some nails.
I keep telling him I am not quite ready to work on the shed yet. Have to get some other things done first. The shed is not a high priority.
I was sitting in my living room and looked out of the window. There was my neighbor walking onto my porch. He didn't ring the doorbell. He didn't knock on the front door. I saw him sit something down in the chair on the front porch. He turned and walked back to his house.
I went outside and there on the chair were two boxes of nails. He had quietly brought them over and sat them on the chair. No fanfare. No waving of arms or pounding on his chest to say look at me. I am giving you this gift. I am sure he did not even see me while he was quietly placing the boxes on the chair.
How much in contrast to the people who call attention to their acts of love and kindness. Look what I did for her. Wasn't that a nice gesture?
I can think of the other quiet acts of love and kindness that have touched my heart in much the same way as those two boxes of nails. Putting dishes in the dish washer, taking out a broken light bulb from a light socket, an unexpected cupcake with one candle to celebrate a birthday, helping to sand the ceiling and walls. And the list could go on. Ordinary acts, very small, often unnoticed by others, but very powerful.
It is the quiet acts of kindness, the two boxes of nails left quietly, without fanfare that touch the heart. It is the other small actions that may appear common and ordinary in the whole scheme of life. But they are not. They touch the heart.
So no, the two box of nails are not a new diet. They are not a new fad sweeping the nation that you will hear about on the national news. They are a quiet and powerful tool to show caring and concern for someone else.
Have you given away two boxes of nails today? If you haven't, I would challenge you to do that.
Juanita
