If one attempts to be a writer, there is one inevitable problem to be faced: too many books. Yes, too many. I know some of my avid reader friends will cry “Foul!” at this one because they certainly believe that whoever has the most books at death wins, but the reality is that books take up a lot of space and I seldom read a book more than once. I am thankful that e-readers are going to make this an obsolete problem one day, but until then, MaryAnn needs to give her weighted down bookshelves a break.

In reading about Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung last Tuesday, I was struck by her busy schedule, including having just enrolled in a Ph.D. program. I “inherited” quite a number of educational leadership books while working at our local university and thought they would help me with that career. Life has taken me a different direction (duh) and thus, these poor books are just gathering dust on my shelves. It seems a shame when I know our university library (which has a Ph.D. program in educational leadership) could really use them. So, this past week I have packed them up and taken them to my favorite place to study master’s level psychology. It seems only fitting that the place that nurtured both my education and my career should benefit from these books. And over the years I have grown very fond of several of the staff members there. I like to think that Dawn would have liked this way of blessing other learners and colleagues, too.

So, the 26 Tuesday Acts of Kindness tally stands at 17. Please let me know, either privately or publicly, if you participated and how many acts of kindness you undertook this week. Kudos to you for participating!

This week’s honoree is Madeleine Hsu. The description of her is, honestly, too brief, but click on her name below, if only to see her darling face. That, alone, should inspire your Act of Kindness for this coming week:

Madeleine F. Hsu, 6

Sweet. Unique. Bright. Determined. Sparkling. Those are words Madeleine’s family used to describe their little girl.”She was an avid reader who loved running and dancing,” they said. “She was a born leader.”