As folks in our region begin to put away snow blowers and pull out lawn mowers, I recall the particularly snowy day my neighbor cleared our sidewalk.

I caught him to say thank you (this wasn’t the first time he’d been kind in this way).

“Oh, it only takes a minute,” he said.

True, it was probably just a few minutes of work using his machine, but it transformed my day. Six inches of snow, gone. Like magic.

Often, just a minute of our own time can bring disproportionate returns for someone else.

Small, selfless acts. Huge effect.

There’s no down-side to that kind of generosity.