When did you pay it forward?

When did you pay it forward?

Is it just me or could everyone do with an injection of kindness?

It’s been a big couple of weeks of outrage. I am not going to say anything about cricketers or reality TV contestants or Commonwealth Games organising committees, except to say the internet can be a dark and angry place.

Yesterday though, I read a post from my friend Rachael. She wasn’t big noting, just telling a story.
On Wednesday, Rach ducked into the supermarket to grab a few things.
As she entered the shop she saw an elderly lady shuffling slowly toward the trolleys. Overtaking her, Rachael grabbed a small trolley and swung it back to the woman, hoping to save her the extra steps.

The woman couldn’t thank Rachel enough and explained she had just had some injections in her knees, and after a terrible day her pain medication had kicked in just enough to allow a trip to the shops to grab her dogs some food, ‘Before they eat me!’ she joked.
Rach laughed and asked the woman what was on her list. It turned out to be just five things. Rachael sat the woman down and offered to run around the shop for her. They discussed dog food brands and Rachael got the job done, meeting the lady out the front of the shop before taking her things to the car.
Paying it forward isn’t new. The concept was first explored in a play written in Athens in 317 BC. It was the subject of a book published in 1916.
In 1977, a young writer was driving her beat up old Datsun through LA when it started to spew smoke. She jumped out of the car to see two guys running toward her holding a blanket, terrified she was about to be mugged the woman turned and ran. When she returned she found the two men had used the blanket to douse flames coming from her exhaust and save her car from exploding.

It took the young woman a moment to realise she had been saved, “These two guys could have died,” she says. “I could have died. I turned around to thank them–and they weren’t there. For the next few months, I walked around with this huge sense of regret. But without realizing it, that planted the seed for the idea. If you can’t pay it back, pay it forward.”

In the year 2000, twenty three years after her Datsun caught fire, Catherine Ryan Hyde’s movie ‘Pay it Forward’ hit the cinemas.
It doesn’t matter how big or small you act of kindness is. It might be pulling in your neighbours bin or simply choosing to keep scrolling instead of typing something mean on line (baby steps). Whatever you decide it is, I reckon the world could use a little right now.

Caroline xx