Just a Little Kindness

February 17, 2026February 10, 2026 / jrmilson / Leave a comment

There are days that arrive with banners and bugles, fanfares and frolic, parties and parades attached to them. Like Mardi Gras today.
And then there are days that simply tap softly on the door and wait.

Today is one of those.

Random Acts of Kindness Day does not ask for grand gestures or long explanations. It does not require a plan, a budget, or a public witness. It just asks us to notice — and then act — in whatever small way presents itself.

Sometimes that looks like holding a door a moment longer than is polite.
Sometimes it sounds like a “Thank You” said clearly, without rushing past it.
Sometimes it is letting someone go ahead of you when you are tired and in a hurry — and choosing not to make a story about it afterward.
Sometimes it is an unexpected visit.

Sometimes it is a note tucked into a lunch bag or backpack.
Sometimes it is paying for the order behind you in a drive-thru.
Sometimes it is a phone call made without waiting for the perfect moment.
Sometimes it is simply a smile and a moment of acknowledgment at the register.

The thing about kindness is that it rarely announces itself.
It tends to arrive quietly, do its work, and leave without asking to be remembered.

And that may be why it works.

A small kindness does not try to fix the world.
It simply steadies one corner of it.

And we never know how far the ripples may travel.

We never know what burden someone is carrying when they cross our path. The weight is often invisible. But kindness has a way of lightening a load, even if merely for a little while.

No spotlight required.
No tally kept.
No expectation of return.

Just a moment that says — You’re not alone here.

If today offers you a chance to show kindness — even a small, ordinary kind — take it.
And if it does not, be patient. These moments have a way of finding us most often when we are not looking for them.

And that has always felt like the truest kindness of all.

‘Til next time, then — Jim (and Red!)

P.S. Little Red Bear once said that kindness does not need to be big to be real.
The smallest kindnesses are often the easiest to carry — and the longest remembered.

“The Adventures of Little Red Bear: The First Holler!”

These illustrations were created with the assistance of AI.

Tuesday, After the Paper Arrived

January 27, 2026January 20, 2026 / jrmilson / Leave a comment

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.

While the Year Is Still New

January 6, 2026January 4, 2026 / jrmilson / Leave a comment

Easing out of December and taking the new year one unhurried day at a time

While the year is still new, there is a softness to the days that does not last long. The holidays have packed themselves away, and the calendar has turned without yet asking much of us. Mornings arrive more gently. Even the house seems to move at a slower pace, as though it, too, is willing to linger a moment before the year begins in earnest.

Porches are swept clean. Decorations are carefully taken down and set aside. The lights that remain are fewer, but somehow warmer for it. Routines return slowly — politely — without knocking too loudly. Most of the calendar is still blank, and there is comfort in that. Room to move. Room to breathe.

By the time January reaches its first full week, the talk of New Year’s resolutions has begun to hum a little louder. Lists are made. Promises are weighed. Some folks feel the pull to hurry — to decide everything at once, or to prove something before the year has truly had time to arrive.

But there is no bell to beat here.

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