After being out of town for a few weekends in a row, I finally found myself back home to engage in one of my Saturday rituals. Well, I guess it's not really a ritual. It's really a have-to-do kind of thing.

Mowing the lawn.

Since all my boys are no longer at home (my wife and I had just shipped my last "lawn mower" away to NYU for grad school), I donned my face mask to get to work. By the way, I've been wearing those face coverings long before COVID-19 turned them into a popular fashion item (due to having grass allergies - whoever heard of such a thing?!)

Once again, I digress! 😀

Just as I fired up the lawn mower and began chewing up the grass, I noticed that my neighbor across the street was outside doing something similar. His son was mowing the lawn while he was trimming the edges. As I saw him trimmed, I thought of how meticulously straight and clean he had always kept the edges of his lawn.

I also remembered that I need to do a better job of trimming mine.

Before you could say grass muncher, I saw him cross the street and without saying a word (not that I could hear him over the roar of the lawn mower anyway), he started trimming the edge of my lawn. I stopped the noisy machine, walked over, smiled and said thank you. Then I returned to mowing the grass.

I thought he was just going to trim the edge of my lawn which is directly across the street from his home. He obviously got tired of looking at the crooked edge of that side of my lawn from his front yard - that's what I thought.

Well, I was shocked when he went around every edge of my lawn to trim them - even those edges on the other side of the house that he could never see from his house.

And when he was done, I found out he wasn't really done. He grabbed his leaf blower and started blowing away the debris left from my lawn trimmings until the blower battery ran out.

I was beyond grateful. He had done abundantly above what I could have asked. And I didn't even ask! He knew what I needed, and he came to deliver.

Before he came to help, I was already contemplating doing the trimming the next day or maybe wait another day to take advantage of Monday's holiday to get it done. But my good neighbor took that load off me.

It was a big indescribable relief.

When he was done, I walked over to tell him he had no idea how much load he had taken off me. He simply smiled. His actions not only helped me in the short-term, it was also so well done that it will take minimal effort from me to maintain them that way.

My neighbor delivered help that I sorely needed, but did not ask. He saw that I needed the help, and just offered it.

When was the last time you offered a much needed help to your neighbor? Or a friend. Or an acquaintance. Or a member of your team.

Did you wait for them to ask? Or do you pay attention to what's going on and then offer the help because you saw the need?

I'm ashamed to admit it, but there are times when I've been so self-absorbed and pre-occupied that I don't see the opportunity to offer help even when it's staring me down. Maybe that's happened to you also.

Most of us live such fast-paced lives that we don't slow down enough to see where our skills, passions and resources can help another person. In so doing, we miss countless opportunities to make a difference and add value to others.

Would you slow down this weekend? Would you lift up your head, look around you and see where you could offer help to your neighbor?

As a leader, this neighbor could be a member of your team. It may also be someone on another team. It could be someone nearby. It might be another not in close proximity.

Since we now live in a global village, your neighbor is not limited to someone who's just a few feet away. Someone could be thousands of miles away and be your neighbor because they have a need that you can do something about.

Kindness is not limited by distance. No matter far away the intended recipient is, your gesture of goodwill can reach them.

Let your goodwill traverse great interspaces.