Recently, I experienced a wonderful lesson in how little things still mean a lot. My brother, mother and I live in Hawaii. Our farm is at least a dozen miles from even the most basic of services. Therefore, I take weekly trips to the shop to get supplies. About a month ago, I finished loading up the car and was about to leave, when a piece of paper on the ground caught my eye. I picked it up and read it carefully.
It was a receipt from the State Motor Vehicle Division, recording the owners payment of her Vehicles Registration fees. At first I thought that I could find the owner. So I waited there for about an hour. Although the receipt had been borne on the wind, where in the busy, crowded parking lot would I find the owner? I looked over the receipt for contact or any personal data, perhaps a license tag or telephone number. I checked the date, the fees paid, noted the name of the owner and pocketed the paper. I concluded that the best and easiest step to take was to put the receipt in an envelope and send it to the owner first the next morning.
By the end of the week, I received a beautiful "thank you" letter from a very grateful and happy woman containing a handwritten message and a gift card. In the letter, the woman explained how the wind snatched (夺去) her receipt from a pocket in her car's passenger door. She had searched everywhere for quite some time before giving up.
It felt great to know I had helped someone avoid a loss by doing something that at first glance(一瞥) seemed little and unimportant.
