Danielle Russell

Transcript

I stood staring up at eight giant ladybugs all in a row gripped with fear as a child of six or seven I stood my ground feet planted firmly below the tamest roller coaster at marine land unwilling or unable to overcome my fear of heights long enough to try something new that summer my father had made a list of all the best attractions in Southern Ontario turning our weekends into many road trips as an adult I appreciate the effort but despite all the unique memories from those firsts the times I remember most with my dad were a Saturday morning visits to the grocery store I Now

understand that that Weekly ritual was more about giving my mother a break from me than it was about creating lasting memories for as long as I can remember I have loved puzzles and the greatest puzzle of them all life is one I insisted my mother helped me solve by answering an endless round of but wise there were many important lessons on those Saturday morning trips how to choose a fresh piece of fish what to ask to get the choices cuts of meat and how to compare not just the price of an item but the weight of an item but the most important lessons of them

all had very little to do with the technical aspects of grocery shopping instead as we went from counter to counter and through the cashier lines I learned to see the humans behind the jobs before you asked a question about the product you asked a question about the person I didn't see you last Saturday finally score a weekend off always came before so when did the shipment of salmon come in new people were greeted with even even more curiosity and the regular Saturday staff became part of a weekly cast of characters whose lives unfolded one small interaction at a time and over time that cast of

characters came to expect my dad to be part of their weekly routine tonight is an incredibly hard night sometime this evening it will be 5 years not only to the day but to the hour to the minute and to the second since my dad turns his attention to an entirely new person for the last time less than an hour later the ICU nurse assigned to his room would tell me he had been asking her questions when his heart suddenly stopped it would be months before somebody asked me for the last time where's your dad I haven't seen him lately it happened at Staples and at

the LCBO and more times than I can count at the long goes down the road from his home one question One Moment One interaction at a time my dad built real connections most especially in the places where we often fail to see the people serving us as human recently I met up with a new connection for the first time for coffee at that same Longo store and nobody asked me about my dad but the store manager took one look at me and one look at the person with me and said do you two work together you're two of my favorite regular customers that moment instantly

bonded me with someone I was just getting to know but more powerfully it reminded me of the bond I still share with my dad and the incredible power of human connection over the years I've created a community around my newsletter Tuesday thoughts regular readers know my dad by name they've read funny stories and quotes and been the beneficiary of so many important lessons on how we treat people each week I explore the greatest puzzle of them all life one story one anecdote one lesson learned at a time before issuing a call to action to my readers when the time came to compile a year of

those thoughts into the first ever Tuesday thoughts companion the subtitle came naturally a year of small actions for big impact tonight is a Tuesday night so it seems fitting to issue you all a bonus call to action find those small moments that when taken week after week lead to the connections that unveil another piece of the puzzle of life long after I learned to enjoy the thrill of a roller coaster I I learned that my dad had been afraid of heights his entire life but he knew that if he showed me his fear instead of showing me his encouragement I might never learn to try

something new I'm on a mission to inspire actions that amplify my impact and tonight I'm hoping to lend my voice to my dad so that he might inspire you to take small actions that lead to Big impacts even if at first you're afraid to try

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.