This isn't a standard post in regards to food or weight loss but I find it relevant in terms of the kindess in this particular community. I hope you'll agree.
My brother and I took my mom to Mother's Day lunch today because none of us like the Sunday crowds. About 10 minutes after we all parted ways, my brother called me to say he just had a "pay it forward" moment. He was about to get gas when a woman asked him how much he was getting. He replied "$20.00." She then said "put your money away, I'm filling up your tank." He told her she didn't need to do that and she responded with "It's ok I need change for $100.00 anyways." Forty-five dollars later his truck was full and he said "well at least let me carry your (24pack) water for you. She said "that's ok, just pay it forward."
SO AWESOME!!!!
Similarly, on Valentine's weekend of this year my SO and I were staying at a hotel about one and a half hours away. When we were headed out of town the next day we stopped at a local Dutch Bros. coffee drive-thru. The kid inside popped his head out and with a poop-eating-grin said "that car in front of you just bought your drinks."
[Let me explain Dutch Bros. in case you don't have them. They are typically drive-thru, walk-up only type shops that have a "spotter" who takes your order when you are as far as 5 or 6 cars back in line and sends it via cell inside. I guess kind of like any drive-thru except the ordering box is a human...lol. Kind of cool if you think about it. So they knew exactly how much to charge them for our drinks.]
We were dumbfounded! "WTH!? Really!? Does that kinda thing happen all the time here?" "Nope" he said "never seen anything like it" with the same poop-eating-grin. So we looked in our mirrors, paid it "backward" and left. I don't know how long that went on for after us but looking back I hope it was for a good part of the day.
Once about a year ago I was leaving Costco and saw an elderly woman unpacking her cart into her car. She had a costco sized case of water in her basket so I jumped out of my car and asked her if she needed help. She was very thankful and I already felt really good about myself for doing-my-good-deed-for-the-day. But I have to admit I also felt really good when another woman driving by saw this and thanked me for it.
I usually try to be kind to people when it's easy...and I think about it; holding open doors for people for longer than many people might feel comfortable, letting a person carrying two or three items go before me and my full cart at the grocer. We save our recyclable bottles for a neighbor who needs them. That kind of thing.
I also try to never tell people what to do on the internet. There's plenty of that out there already. Besides I probably do enough of that in my real life. I like to say how things relate to and work for me and let others take from it what they will.
I am vowing here to start actively seeking out opportunities to "pay it forward/backward." Obviously it doesn't have to involve money, but If I can spend a few bucks here or there to make someone elses day and that in turn pays it forward/backward once, twice or twenty times, or maybe that person goes to work with a smile on their face and pays a compliment to someone else creating a chain, it's totally worth it in my book. Why? Because it makes me feel really good about myself...and I'm selfish that way :).
Gotta go. Got something in my eye(s). lol
P.S. In our ever reducing world of communication to sound and visual bytes, when emojis have become an acceptable form of communication and even adapted into dictionaries as valid, sometimes it takes reading or telling a story like this to remind me of what's really important in my life.