Paying It Forward: Nice Things Are Returned
I'm a massive believer in "paying it forward". "Paying it forward" is doing a nice deed for someone when someone else does a nice deed for you. It's all about keeping the good deed going so that it touches as many people as possible in the world. I love this concept. Someone reminded me of why I love it so much today.
I've been back and forth to the City Hospital in Belfast this week because my Mum is in for an operation. Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to kill before heading back to the ward. I was hungry and hadn't eaten all day so I popped into a coffee shop called Sinammon on Belfast's Botanic Avenue.
Here's the problem. I have a tooth that's been giving me pain lately-nothing huge. But when I tried to eat my sandwich yesterday, I was nearly in tears. It was suddenly excruciating. After struggling through 3 bites, I gave up and left.
I've since dosed myself up on horse tranquilliser-like painkillers so, when I had time to kill today, I decided to pop in and grab a hot chocolate and some food. The young guy at the counter stared at me. "You're the one that didn't eat your food yesterday! You can have the scone on us." I told him that he didn't have to do that; the food was great, the problem was the pain in my mouth! But he insisted. So I'm sitting here leeching off their Wi-Fi and writing about them because I want to pay it forward. They didn't have to do that. What they don't know is that my Mother is currently in the operating theatre and I'm killing time until she's out again. (She told me to bugger off and do something useful so I decided to catch up on work). The operation is a little complicated but fairly routine but I'm still worried. So, on a day when I was feeling a bit anxious and sad, they made me smile with a scone and a coffee. Sometimes it's the little things that matter most.
Pay it forward today. Go hug someone. Smile at somebody that looks sad. Tell that person how you really feel. Tell someone you love them. Give someone hope. Love. Keep the gift going. And have a very happy Friday.