Good things happen quietly, almost without anyone noticing.

Yesterday, at Costco, I helped an elderly lady load a large box into her car trunk. She was shuffling along, pushing one of those giant Costco carts, using her cane to move towards her car, in the rain.

The box was filled with boxes and boxes of pencils. Costco sized boxes, filling a much larger box. More than a couple of lifetime supplies of pencils. Maybe all the pencils Costco had in stock.

“That’s a lot of pencils,” I said.

“Oh, they’re for my kids, the kids at the grade school in my neighborhood,” she said. “Every couple of months, I donate pencils for all the kids there. They run out of them. Everyone needs a couple of good pencils.”

She shuffled to her car door, leaning on her cane, finally getting out of the rain.

“Thanks for your donation, and for helping out your kids,” I said.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said.

Just changing lives. Just making a difference in this world, one pencil at a time.

—Neal Lemery 3/16/16