Pay It Forward
This was sent to me this morning. I have met the woman who wrote the article many years ago in Melbourne. I’ll drop her a line to thank her for her wonderful story.
It is the world I envisage in the future.
Happy happy July kit
It’s been quite cold here in Melbourne over the past few weeks. Happily I’ve had the chance of a few trips up to warmer climes thanks to clients. I hope you’re warm and comfortable where ever you are.
June 27 saw the launch of ‘The Home Therapist – a practical, self-help guide to everyday psychological problems.’ I was honoured to be invited to be a contributing author and naturally my contribution relates to the power of laughter. The book is available ‘in all good book stores’ as they say in the ads. You might like to check it out.
Anyone who’s spent any amount of time with me knows that I’m a huge advocate of helping where and when I can. I call it on-going gratitude. Many people know it as Pay It Forward. If I see someone who looks like they need a bit of a hand I’ll offer to help. I ask for nothing in return although I do know that I’ll experience that amazing feeling that comes from doing something for another person for no reason other than being there to help, and I maintain the hope that perhaps, one day when I need a bit of a hand someone will be there for me.
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of listening to a busker who was playing guitar and singing at my local shops. He was really quite good although I couldn’t help but notice that his guitar had only 3 stings. I remembered that a few weeks earlier I’d seen someone else whose guitar also had only 3 strings and, not knowing anything about guitars, asked if there was a reason. He told me that guitars really should have 6 strings but they break and sometimes strings have to come after food and rent. I thanked him, gave him a few dollars and went on with my day.
That night I was helping a friend clean out her rumpus room and under the couch we found 2 boxes of nylon guitar strings. She looked at them in amazement because none of her children play guitar and she wondered where they’d come from. I said that if she didn’t want them I thought I might have a home for them and she happily let me have them.
I posted one set off to the school where I met the boy earlier in the month with a note and the hope that they might be passed on, and put the others in my bag to give to the busker. I hoped he’d still be at the shops the next day and happily he was. I gave him the strings and he smiled and thanked me, not only for the stings but for the fact that they were nylon and not steel. I had to admit I had no idea there were 2 types!
He told me his name was Wes, showed me how to put the strings onto his guitar, tuned it and then handed it to me and stood up. A shopping jeep being pushed by an older lady had tipped over and she was struggling to right it. He rushed to help. She thanked him with a smile and a pat on the arm. As he walked back I watched as she helped a mother with a baby in a pram and a toddler cross the car park into the shops. She asked the toddler to ‘help’ her with her jeep, by holding onto the side and together they watched for cars. They were both beaming. As they parted the toddler picked up an orange that had fallen out of a man’s shopping bag, tapped him on the leg and held it up to him. He thanked her and patted her on the head. Wes began playing and I sat next to him and listened and the gentleman who’d dropped the orange dropped $5 into Wes’s guitar case. Wes smiled and thanked him, looked at me and said, “It’s nearly gone full circle, your good deed!” Then he told me all he had was a song and dedicated his next tune to me.
We don’t often get to see the ripple effect that comes from one good deed. We don’t need to. All I need to know is that if I do something for a stranger or for a friend, that they might be inspired to do a good deed for someone else, to notice what’s going on around them and be prepared to step up if the need or opportunity arises.
This month you might like to keep an eye out. If you see the opportunity to help, to take a moment out of your day to make a difference, why not step up try a little on-going gratitude. You might be surprised just how good it makes you feel.
Don’t forget, you might also like to check out the Smile Project on face book. They do good deeds every day by encouraging their smiley family to share smiles with those around them. We also have our own face book page at Let’s Laugh, although Bob, my IT guy tells me that I really have to be much better at putting up posts.
I hope your July is amazing.
I’ll sign off with the words of my new friend Wes, the guitarist. ‘May your reality be a fun one’.
Keep laughing
Bronwyn Roberts
Chief Happiness Officer
Let’s Laugh
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