You know those projects that make you feel as if you're spinning your wheels and you're going to lose whatever hair you have left?

Cheryl Rice was working on one of those projects at work. She was frustrated. She felt stalled. She was dejected.

Then a colleague gave her a card that changed everything.

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Often when we're going through a rough time, we feel alone, and just having someone notice and understand makes all the difference between feeling invisible and feeling loved and supported. For Cheryl, that card bearing just two little words is what made her realize she wasn't alone.

The two words?

You Matter.

Cheryl told me she teared up when she read the message. "I've struggled at times with my own self-worth, and when I received the card, it felt like a question I carry around with me had been answered. I matter. That expression from her to me filled me up."

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Cheryl was so touched by the gesture that she ordered 100 of her own cards to give away, first to family and friends and then to acquaintances. Eventually, she also started leaving cards in strategic locations to brighten strangers' days—in the credit card holders at gas pumps, in library books, on car windshields.

And then she got bolder.

(READ more at Brad Aronson's blog)