Acts Of Kindness - February 09

Have you ever experienced an act of kindness? In today’s '5 Minutes in Nature', Liz comes across a heartfelt gesture while out on her walk—a neighbor has thoughtfully built a bench along a popular footpath, offering walkers a place to rest and take in the beauty of a wildflower meadow. This simple yet meaningful act serves as a reminder of the joy found in community and the power of kindness to foster connection.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott. I'm out again in February, Every day in February, Enjoying nature's wisdom as I go walking and today is another glorious sunny day. In fact it's so sunny that people are out and about and I am very likely to have to say hello to somebody as they walk by because everybody comes out when it's sunny. When I'm out in the nobody's out apart from dog walkers but today I think lots of people will be out enjoying that sunshine and soaking up the warmth and I'm walking on a track that takes me back home. It's a tiny little footpath and I'm walking between two fields. On one side there's a granite stone wall which is probably about six foot high and it's covered in moss and grass and brambles and on my right hand side there's a wooden fence that you can see through and it's a meadow which is a wildflower meadow and in the summertime it is just the most divine and beautiful place to come to. At the moment it's being grazed by sheep and I can see on the ground I can see lots of mole hills so obviously the moles are absolutely loving this wildflower meadow and it's yeah I can see some more it must be it's almost like a city of moles I think there are so many mole hills around so they're obviously loving this place and as I'm walking down the path I can see in front of me a new bench so this has been put up by the person who owns this wildflower meadow and I am going to sit on this bench and this is just what I love. These moments where people are kind and thoughtful and think of others. It's what community for me is all about. It's those little gestures of thoughtfulness and here is this bench which has been made out of recycled wood it's quite small it's probably enough space for two people to sit so let me just sit down but as I sit I can see across the wildflower meadow and down towards the woodland in the valley and then up the hillside on the opposite side which takes my eye all the way up back up onto Dartmoor again. Sitting down and being in nature and as I look I can see there's a magpie in the field that's just flown down and is bobbing around it looks like it's looking for insects and grubs to eat and I'm just scouring my eye along the tree line because sometimes there's a buzzard that seems to take up residence on one of the the branches of the trees. Now in the UK a buzzard is a hawk so it's a hawk that's just looking out I'm assuming for prey and of course it's a wildflower meadow so I'm sure that there's lots of wildlife that it's able to find and to eat but today is really about small gestures of kindness it's about reflecting on how you and how I might contribute to this network of contributing to small gestures of kindness kindness that you put out there that you don't expect to almost get a return on like this bench that I'm sitting on in the sunshine looking across the meadow watching the birds as they flit onto the meadow and up back into the trees again it's so easy to go through life thinking what can I get out of this or what's the point of me doing something because nobody will acknowledge it or say thank you or appreciate what I do at least that's how I think sometimes and yet as I sit on this bench and admire the meadow I'm reminded of the importance of small thoughtful gestures that connect us all so my question to you is this and it's a question to me too what small gestures of kindness are you going to express and give to the world what small gestures of kindness are you going to give to the world and just allow that not as a thing you need to do or something that's serious that needs to get done but something that you can with a smile give to the world give from your sense of abundance and share with others