Small Things Matter Some people say that human were created with two ears and one mouth so that human will listen more rather than to speak more. To some point, I agree that we should use our ears more than use our mouth, but in some occasions there are a lot of acts of kindness that people can do with their mouth, for example: 1.Smiling. I have a friend that when she talks she always put a smile on her face. Even it is just a ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’, she adds the ‘smile spice’ in her greetings and the rest of the conversation become delicious. It is difficult not to smile back at her because she always talks with enthusiasm. Sometimes, just to be around her is already a pleasant experience. 2. Giving encouragement. Another friend likes to give words of encouragement, such as, ‘You can do it’, ‘Ganbatte (do your best/good luck), ‘Don’t worry, you’ll improve’. Well, sometimes those words doesn’t have an immediate effect, but still it feels nice to hear that. 3. Paying a compliment. One of my professors has the habit in paying compliments to his students. It looks like he never runs out of positive words, whether it is during class or when he returns our assignment that has been graded. ‘Well done’, ‘good job’, ‘nice works’ and ‘excellent’ are only some of the examples. 4. Wishing people well. Instead of saying ‘bye’ as a farewell, some of my friends will say ‘have a great day’ or ‘ki wo tsukete’ (take care). And I tend to believe that it will indeed bring me a great day, free of troubles. For me, it is just delightful to be surrounded by these acts of kindness, and I am very grateful of that. But if you think that these acts of kindness is not important, imagine if you live in an environment with the reverse quality. It would be awful, right?