I love little things. No, I don’t just mean my short friends. Little trinkets, rings, hair clips, tiny flowers – anything of that sort. I think the best kind of gift is a little thing that you receive because the person who got it for you thought of you when they saw it.

  The little key ring of a labrador, the pair of gloves that’s the same shade of pink as your jacket, the thing you mentioned that one time six months ago that you really needed. Those things are the best gifts.

  However, “it’s the little things that count” does not refer to gifts. But getting someone a nice gift is one of the little things that count. The gift itself isn’t the little thing, the act of giving the gift (and the fact that the gift is relevant to you) is what the “little thing” in this scenario is.

  If you spend an inordinate amount of time on social media, no doubt you’ve seen those videos where two people are sitting at a table, one person drops something and ducks their head under the table, and the other person puts their hand over the sharp edge of the table so that the first person doesn’t hit their head on the way up. That is a little thing.

  It could be argued that “the little things” are actually just the expected level of kindness. That people should always be looking out for others, smiling, holding the door open. And I would say that this is true – but there is a big difference between physically stopping your friend from hitting their head on the table, and saying, “watch out!”. “The little things” are those things that require that little bit of extra effort – that single step above what is expected. The difference between smiling out of courtesy, and smiling while meaning it. The difference between stopping to say hi, and stopping to hear the other person say hi. The difference between offering to do the washing up, and just doing it.

  Those extra bits of effort that we are willing to give other people are what make life beautiful.