Tis' the season for doing good. What good shall you do today?

Take Pen to Paper: Edition 60

“A person should always develop his ability to do goodness. Make yourself better; this should be every person’s goal.” - Immanuel Kant

Hello, new and returning Pen to Paper readers!

Honestly, there is no specific season for doing good. Doing good should be a default habit we each create and carry out throughout the year.

But I’ll be the first to admit the holiday season ramps up the message of doing good for others. Just weeks away from Thanksgiving, my mind turned to how easy it can be to do good.

In this newsletter:

1. Hallmark Holiday Movies

2. My Mother’s Cat

3. Good Cannot be Measured

4. Benjamin Franklin

(I know you can’t wait to see how I tie these together.)

‘Tis the Season to Watch Movies

I don’t watch much television, and when I do, only certain things appeal to me.

I love old movies, cooking shows, baseball, and football. A few other shows are sprinkled in, but not many.

Then November comes, and the holiday movies start. By December, they are in full force. That’s when my TV time increases exponentially.

Every December evening (and some in November), you can find me in front of the television without my husband. He goes off to enrich his mind with great literature. I’m soaking up a Hallmark Holiday movie.

I confess.

I love Hallmark Holiday movies.

I am comforted knowing I’m not the only person to feel this way. Hallmark Holiday movies are so popular that the company created a movie checklist app to ensure you don’t miss any.

That’s right! Thirty-one new holiday movies filmed in July to air in December. You can see the reruns of older movies in November. I think that is ingenious.

What’s not to love about these movies?

Snow, elaborate Holiday decorations, baking, parties, a love story, and it is Hallmark, so there is a happy ending. To their credit, they have made a conscious effort to increase diversity in their stories and include other December holidays, like Kwanzaa and Hannukah.

Muffin the Cat

Hallmark movies are a fairly recent obsession in my life.

My mother and her cat, Muffin, played a role in my love of Hallmark Holiday movies. This is surprising, particularly since, to my knowledge, my mother didn’t watch Hallmark movies, preferring instead The Weather Channel, game shows like The Price is Right, and the local news.

In November 2019, my mother was in declining health, which forced her to move from an assisted living apartment into a nursing care facility.

My mother was devastated when she had to leave her 20-year-old cat. Muffin was my mother’s world. Every phone call included a Muffin report. She carried a picture of Muffin to show anyone interested. My mother said she was living to care for Muffin on more than one occasion. She stopped just short of saying when Muffin died, she would no longer have a reason to live.

The assisted living facility staff cared for Muffin during the 30-day grace period of moving my mother’s belongings out of her apartment.

The staff left the television on The Hallmark Channel so Muffin wouldn’t feel lonely. Every time I went into the apartment between Thanksgiving and January, a Hallmark movie was on. My mother’s love for Muffin knew no bounds. If she thought Muffin liked watching the Hallmark channel, she definitely would have watched it, too.

Muffin was adopted by the end of the 30-day grace period. My mother passed away in January. Muffin spent many hours “watching” Hallmark Holiday movies.

A Small Good Has Huge Benefits

You may be wondering what my point is.

My connection to Hallmark movies results from the small good done for my mother’s cat.

What the assisted living facility staff did for Muffin stuck with me. It wasn’t even anything they did for me directly. They knew what Muffin meant to my mother.

So it’s not the size of the good we choose to do or who we choose to do it for. It’s that we choose to do it.

It is easy to think what you do won’t be noticed, appreciated, or enough. That line of thought is wrong.

Don’t get caught up in whether you should do something small for someone else. Go ahead and do it. You never know who you will touch with your words or actions. You will know you did the right thing.

Now I think of my mother when I watch the Hallmark channel all because a small good done for Muffin.

Benjamin Franklin Had the Right Idea

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Frankin, he noted each day in his schedule these two questions:

• Morning: What good shall I do this day?

• Evening: What good have I done this day?

If everyone journaled those questions and the resulting answers each day, the world would be a better place.

Muffin at 20, Photo by S.G.S.Abel

7 Days, 7 Thoughts on Gratitude and Good:

1. A quote: “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” -Scott Adams

2. It’s good to think of our small actions like skipping rocks. Just think of the ripples you send out. Check out this video.

3. This article tells how Walmart adds special times for shoppers with sensory issues. A small good thing that makes a big difference.🛒

4. Why are Hallmark Holiday Movies so popular? Here’s one opinion. 📽️

5. You probably need the Hallmark Movie Checklist App. Here is some information on downloading it. 📲

6. Want to know more about cats watching TV? Here’s an article for you to read. 🐈

7. I’m grateful for memories like the story of Muffin “watching” the Hallmark Channel that remind me not to hesitate to do good no matter how silly it may seem.

Thank you for reading!

I hope my story helped you remember a time when you experienced a small good.

💚

Susan

This week, if you are wondering what small good you might do, consider the small good things someone did for you. Share them with me by leaving a comment. I would love to start a list of small good things for when I get stumped.

If you love this newsletter, share it!

If it’s just not for you, it’s OK to unsubscribe (at the bottom of the email).

🎁As promised, this gift will be posted throughout November.🎁

I have created a free gratitude template for you to either:

• start a gratitude practice

• stretch your gratitude practice

The template is 31 topics and example sentences for gratitude. Thirty-one topics will get you through each day in any month. Isn’t November a great time to start?

I’ve said it several times, gratitude brought me more than I imagined, so it’s natural for me to recommend it.

I love having a guide and examples when I take on a new endeavor. That’s what I hope this is for any who would like to use it. There are three ways to access the template.

1. Access and make a copy of this Google Document

The Daily Gratitude Habit Jumpstart

2. Go to The Daily Gratitude Jumpstart by clicking this link https://sgsabel.gumroad.com/l/DailyGratitudeHabitJumpstart. Or enter it into your browser.

   When you scroll down the page, you should see this (without my red mark):

2. In the “Name a fair price” box I marked in red, put the numeral “0” because this is free! You provide your email, and a copy will be sent to you to download.

3. You can also access Gumroad through my website, takepentopaper.com where you will find a link to the site described above.

Hopefully, I will have at least one reader try each method to make sure I did everything correctly on my end. 🤞(If using technology was a virtue, it would be greatly lacking in me.) If you have any problems, let me know.

Remember, the template is not month-specific. Use it any time.