Back in 2014 (I think), I wrote a few blog posts about being kind to others and doing something for the greater good of society. The tiniest thing can brighten up someone else’s day and it (often) doesn’t take a lot of effort on the part of the ‘giver’. On Saturday, I popped down to the post office (regular readers will wonder if I actually live there, but it is the centre of the universe in Calne!) to send some special and recorded deliveries and pay in my cheques (as there is no branch for my bank in Calne). I was surprised to find a small queue and just one person working – on a Saturday!? On the way in, I held the door open for a lady with a child in a pushchair and on the way out, for a lady on a mobility scooter. You’d think I had given them the crown jewels.
Yesterday (Sunday) was ‘clearing out of the garage’ day. Having completed the office refurbishment (decoration, new carpets etc.) a few weeks ago, all of the unwanted clutter had been deposited in the garage. Time to get rid…. on the second ‘tip trip’, I was heading towards a skip with an old (but fully functional) exercise bike and a gentleman asked if he could have it! He seemed rather pleased to be heading back home with it and I was delighted it had a new resting place rather than going to the scrapheap.
And then today, I have met (either virtually or physically) with two clients we are currently working with. Some interesting questions have come to light in both projects and all parties have been overwhelmingly positive about our work and our approach to some quite challenging conundrums.
So folks, can you think of ways that you could ‘Pay it forward‘? It doesn’t have to be difficult or cost anything. Often the simplest things can make such a difference to others.
[Pay it forward is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor. The concept is old but the phrase may have originally been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book, In the Garden of Delight.]
