Lead the Way

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Having come across a line the other day that stopped me in my tracks, I wanted to share it with you — not because it was clever, but because it was so clear.

“Don’t wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly . . . lead the way!” — Steve Maraboli

That simple idea has a way of lingering.

So often, we wait.

We wait for the mood in the room to improve.
We wait for someone else to soften first.
We wait for the world to give us permission to be kind.

But kindness has never needed permission.

Being loving, generous, or compassionate is not something done after conditions improve. More often than not, it is the very thing that improves them.

Leading the way does not have to be loud.
It does not require a spotlight or a platform.

Sometimes it looks like:

  • offering patience when impatience would be easier
  • choosing gratitude when complaint feels tempting
  • being friendly without checking first to see if it will be returned

Small acts, yes — but small acts have a way of traveling farther than expected. Like ripples on water, they move outward quietly, reaching people and places we may never know about. And isn’t that a good thing?

There is a quiet power in deciding to go first.

First to Smile.
First to Forgive.
First to offer Grace.

In uncertain or heavy times, that choice matters even more — not because it fixes everything, but because it reminds us, and those around us, of who we still are —
that we are human, and that we care.

There is no way to know who needed to see that kindness today.
No way to measure the ripple it may have started.

And that is all right. What matters is simply that the kindness was offered.

The world does not change only through grand gestures. Sometimes it shifts because one person decided not to wait.

So if there is a question about what to do today, perhaps this is enough —

Be the Loving one.
Be the Generous one.
Be the Friendly one.

Lead the way.

Doesn’t that feel like a good place to begin — leading with Kindness?

‘Til next time.  — Jim  (and Red!)

If you’d like to receive these notes as they’re written, you’re welcome to follow along here.

These illustrations were created with the assistance of AI

 

 

The Hearth & Holler Gazette — Issue No. 2

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A Weekly Visit of Tales, Tidings, and Old-Time Country Comfort

Welcome!

It’s been a cold and storm-bound week in Honey Hill Country.

But before we go any further, for first time visitors, it may help to know where — and when — we are.

The Gazette hails from Honey Hill Country, a small, rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, as it might have been known in the year 1904 — a time of front porches and wagon roads, oil lamps and handwritten letters, when news traveled at a human pace, and a Saturday paper was meant to be read slowly, with coffee close at hand. This is not a paper of breaking news or loud headlines. It prefers instead to notice it — the small, human-sized moments that once filled a morning without asking much in return.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a work of fiction — a made-up paper from a made-up place, written in the spirit of an earlier time. Any resemblance to real towns, people, or events is entirely coincidental, though we do our best to make it feel otherwise.

This past week brought heavy snow and sharp cold across much of the region, drawing neighbors closer to home and closer to one another. What follows reflects that — stories of preparation, patience, quiet help, and the small moments that tend to reveal themselves most clearly when the world slows under winter’s hand.

So, with that said  — Please come on in . . . . . . 

Continue reading →

Tuesday, After the Paper Arrived

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A quiet word about Tuesdays, and the work they do here.

The morning after a paper comes out is usually quieter than the one before it.

The ink is already dry. The papers delivered where they were meant to go. A deep breath. A satisfying sigh after a job well done.

Somewhere, a cup of coffee has been poured and forgotten for a moment while a headline was read twice, or a paragraph lingered longer than expected. Or when someone paused for a laugh. Somewhere else, a paper has been folded and set aside, ready to be picked up again later in the day.

Life, as it turns out, keeps right on going.

There is something comforting in that.

That the world, for the most part, knows how to carry on.

On Saturday morning, the first issue of The Hearth & Holler Gazette arrived. And then Sunday came, and Monday followed close behind. And now here we are on Tuesday — the morning a little different and things settling again into their usual rhythm.

That is how these things are meant to work.

Once a week is enough for a newspaper. Once a week gives it room to breathe — room to notice, to remember, to arrive without knocking too loudly. It is not meant to rush or crowd the days around it. Or to demand center stage. It is meant to take its place and then let the rest of the week do what it always does in turn.

Tuesdays, for their part, will keep doing Tuesday things here.

They will keep returning us to the quieter work — kindness noticed in small places, moments of grace we almost missed, the steady presence of family, memory, and the natural world doing what it has always done, whether we are watching closely or not — and to the small, steady work of remaining hopeful and finding happiness within, even when the wider world seems determined that we not. These are the themes that have lived here a long while now, and they remain, unchanged by the arrival of anything new. That feels right, and as it should be, don’t you think?

A newspaper can come and go once a week, and still leave the lamp on. A story can be read and folded away, and still be there when needed again. Nothing more is required of it — or of us — than to show up, and carry on.

And so we do.

We will be here with The Hearth & Holler Gazette again on Saturday, and we hope you will be too.

— Jim (and Red!)

P.S. — Little Red Bear here.
I read through the “Hearth & Holler Gazette” twice on Saturday, but the second time I mostly just smiled and nodded like I already knew how it ended.

Pen-and-ink illustrations created with the assistance of AI and lovingly styled for Little Red Bear Land.

 

The Hearth & Holler Gazette — Issue No. 1

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A Weekly Visit of Tales, Tidings, and Old-Time Country Comfort

Welcome!

What follows is the first issue of The Hearth & Holler Gazette — a weekly, fictional newspaper set down for no purpose more urgent than keeping you company for a little while.

Before we begin, it may help to know where — and when — you are.

The Gazette hails from Honey Hill Country, a small, rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, as it might have been known in the year 1904 — a time of front porches and wagon roads, oil lamps and handwritten letters, when news traveled at a human pace, and a Saturday paper was meant to be read slowly, with coffee close at hand.

Everything within these pages is make-believe — imagined people, places, notices, and happenings — shaped for storytelling and offered in the spirit of old-time country papers. This is not a paper of breaking news or loud headlines. It does not chase the day. It prefers instead to notice it — kitchens and workshops, hillsides and quiet corners — the small, human-sized moments that once filled a morning without asking much in return.

You are welcome to read straight through, skip about, or linger where something catches your eye. The Gazette will arrive once a week, on Saturday mornings, the way a friendly visit used to — not to hurry you, but to sit a spell and share what has been noticed.

We hope you enjoy this first visit, and that you will come back again.
The kettle will be on.

So, with that said  — Please come on in . . . . . . 

Continue reading →

Fresh Ink & Hot Coffee — Tomorrow, It Begins

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A quiet word before Saturday morning arrives  . . . .

The press is warming, the quill has been freshly dipped, and in this neck of the woods the air smells faintly of biscuits and printer’s ink.

By lamplight, Little Red Bear is checking the final lines, pages stacked neat and waiting. Rusty and Percy are chasing down the last good headline, and somewhere nearby a kettle is whistling — the patient kind that knows its moment is almost here.

The very first issue of The Hearth & Holler Gazette is ready to roll — full of neighbourly news, small-town happenings, a little laughter, and a bit of country comfort to carry with you.

Tomorrow is the day.
The Gazette arrives.
Are you ready?

— Jim  (and Red!

A small note for new readers:
Receiving The Hearth & Holler Gazette is as simple as being registered for this blog. There is nothing more to do.

Something New Is on the Way

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An invitation, quietly extended.

Over the past several weeks, I have mentioned a new project taking shape just over the hill — something written carefully, assembled slowly, and meant to be read at ease.

With the first issue now nearly ready to be set before you, it felt right to let the editor speak for herself.

🖋 A Note from Clara Thimblewick, Editor

For some time now, a small staff has been at work — gathering items of interest, setting type, sharing a pot of coffee, and preparing a paper meant to be read slowly and kept close at hand.

We have taken care to make it worthy of your time.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette was created for readers who still find pleasure in neighborly news, in small observations, and in stories that do not hurry you along.

It is not meant to be exhaustive.
It is not meant to be loud.
It is meant to feel familiar.

If you care to join us, we would be glad to have you.

The first issue will be set before you this Saturday.

— Clara Thimblewick, Editor

Before we close, one small thing for clarity.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a make-believe newspaper from a make-believe place in Little Red Bear’s Honey Hill Country, staffed by characters who do not exist anywhere outside these pages.

The things they practice, however, most certainly do.

Kindness.
Compassion.
Looking out for one another.
Stopping long enough to notice.

Those are as real as it gets — and what it is all about.

If this sounds like something you might enjoy, the first issue will be waiting for you this Saturday.

We hope you will join us.

— Jim  (and Red!)

A small note for new readers:
Receiving The Hearth & Holler Gazette is as simple as being registered for this blog. There is nothing more to do.