So, a person “puts it out there,” right? All that goodness, you know, volunteering, donating to charities, holding doors open, giving someone who needs it a hand, smiling like an idiot to see if someone grumpy looking will smile back, and my favourite, complimenting someone who appears to be having a bad day. It’s those little things that make the world a happier place, right?
Well, as it turns out, sometimes those things come right back to you. I walked into a local coffee shop the other day, ordered my usual cheap coffee because, truthfully, all I had in my pocket was a pair of loonies, a quarter and a few dimes and nickels. But hey, it was nearly three in the afternoon and I’d not had coffee that day, and it was still a 30-minute walk home, so I treated myself.
“One cup of coffee,” I said. “Room for cream, and I’d like a blue cup, please.”
Smiling, the coffee server complied and as I reached into my pocket, she said, “There’s no charge. It’s already been paid for by someone else.”
I’m, like, really?
“Really?” I said. “Thank you SO much! You’ve just made my day! It’s like that pay-it-forward thing or something?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Does that, like, happen a lot?” I asked.
“More and more, it has been,” she said, delighted to be the bearer of good news. “Probably a few times a week, sometimes more than once in a day.”
I beamed. I was about to walk away with my free cheap coffee when I thought, I can’t let this stop with me. Why would I let this stop with me? I dipped my hand into my pocket, withdrew my handful of change and gave it to her. “For the next person,” I said, “who orders just a basic, ordinary coffee.”
The two of us were grinning as I walked away. It’s the little things. It’s always the little things.
And then, yesterday, nestled amid the bills and junk in the mailbox is a hand-written letter. Like, really, it was just the coolest thing, out of the blue to get this lovely, unexpected note. I smiled when I read it, put it on the kitchen counter, and smiled every time I saw it.
And then today, I see this tweet on Twitter that says: “Many thanks @sfarrellholler for continuing to be so darn awesome! #ThankyouThursday,” and I’m, like, really? That is SO cool that someone not only thinks I’m awesome, but has said it publicly. It put a big smile on my face. It’s the little things. It’s always the little things.
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© 2013 Sue Farrell Holler
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