This photo warms my heart! I love the dogs, they just love, love, love all the time, no matter how cranky you are.

My neighbor is a nasty woman. I’ve known her for 30 years and she’s always been nasty. It’s a shame, there is no visible reason for her to be so nasty but because she’s so mean her life has become miserable. Everything goes wrong for her; she has no friends, can’t keep a job and spreads her nasty attitude so nothing ever changes for her. Guess she never heard that you get what you give.

Seriously, on those days when you’re in an especially good mood doesn’t it just seem like things fall into place? Everything goes right and more often than not the love just snowballs and everything in life seems easy and wonderful.

Since Valentine’s Day I’ve been doing a little experiment.  I didn’t tell anyone, it was my secret. I decided to make a conscious effort every day to take niceness to the next level. All I did was pay a little extra attention to the people I cross paths. I didn’t go crazy I simply paid attention to the people around me. I was uncharacteristically patient and nice while waiting in line for half an hour at the post office. I chitchat with the boy behind the counter at the grocery store for longer than I normally would have and smiled at strangers rather than snub them. Stuff like that.

On my way to do errands the other day I walked past the man who owns the restaurant across the street from my house. He was taking in the “open” sign. For 3 years we have been crossing paths and for 3 years we have smiled and said “hello”. Today when he said “hello” my lips smiled extra wide and I asked him how his day had been going as I had noticed that his restaurant seemed busier than usual.  This small effort turned into 2 hours of chatting, lots of good coffee and a really yummy brunch that my new friend prepared for me in his closed for the day restaurant. More importantly it felt really nice to be nice. I felt good, my new friend felt good and now we are both rolling the Feel Good Snowball.

After my brunch I went home to clean up the garbage that my nasty neighbor had tossed over the wall into my yard. I considered tossing it back over to her side but I couldn’t do it. My initial reflex was to toss it back thinking it would say, “you Crazy Cow you can’t toss trash in my yard and get away with it!” She had made me angry and I realized that she was spreading her nasty–tude and melting my Feel Good Snowball, I wanted no part of it. I picked up the trash, put it in the bin and that was the end of it. Feel Good Snowball still intact and rolling.

Be nice. It’s infectious and it’s fun to see where your snowball will roll, and whom it might roll into.

I leave you with a quote.

If you would like to spoil the day for a grouch, give him a smile.  – Author Unknown