I was walking my little dog Ruby when we came upon a shattered glass bottle. Sharp shards of clear glass were strewn several feet across the entire width of the sidewalk. I carefully picked her up and went around. When we finished our walk and returned to the apartment I got a broom, dust pan and paper bag. I lined the bottom of the bag with a thick newspaper and in big red letters wrote “Careful broken glass,” on the outside of the bag. Then I headed back over to the next block with my clean up tools in hand.

I bent down and picked up the big pieces. Then I spent 5 or so minutes carefully cleaning up the small shards that had fallen into the grass.  I finished by sweeping up the length of sidewalk and stairs leading up to the apartment building where the bottle had broken.

As I returned home I felt a great sense of peaceful satisfaction. In taking time to clean up the glass I realized the majority of my contentment with life comes from doing what I can to make a positive difference. It makes my heart sing to think I may have prevented a person, or child, or pet from being hurt.

Each and every time we do something positive we feel good. And the truth is, feeling good from lending a helping hand when we see something that needs to be done is addictive, in a very heart-healthy way.