I’ve just been reading an ebook called Small Ways to Make a Big Difference. It’s full of wisdom, it’s delightful, it’s inspiring, it contradicts itself, and it’s free. You can get it at the link or via the image at the bottom of this article.

It’s a compilation of quotes and thoughts from a variety of people. from Mother Teresa to little-known bloggers. That’s why it contradicts itself: some of the writers see things  differently from others, and wisely the editor Raam Dev lets the voices all be there.

I admit it, I do have my cynical moments about our world and where it’s going. I’m not convinced that if you and I do a few kindnesses, they will make a big difference. But admittedly, they might. And  if we don’t do them, our actions have that much less chance of making any worthwhile difference.

I could niggle about how many of the small ways advocated won’t necessarily make much difference, and frankly, if I were to give up ALL plastic bags, what would I pick up my dogs’ poop with when I’m walking them away from home and can’t just use the pooper-scooper we’ve had for decades?

But there is no arguing with the conclusion Raam Dev came to in 2010 after traveling to India: “Instead of discovering myself, I discovered an entire planet that needed my help.” That line is from this page of his site, and it links to a number of interesting articles about how he learned and grew. It wasn’t long before he put together this ebook, and here’s the link to the download page again, in the image; the format of the ebook is PDF. I noticed when reading it that some of the links no longer work, but that’s just the ever-changing way of the internet, and the thoughts are timeless anyway. And that’s no poop.