i had something very rare happen to me today. i went to Extreme Pita to grab a yummy grilled chicken pita for lunch and as i was about to hand over my cash to pay, the guy behind me says, "i've got this . . . i do this to one person everyday, don't worry." i of course think, "ok . . . this guy is probably trying to pick me up." so i politely declined and told him "get outta here, no way, absolutely not etc, etc" in the most light-hearted aw-you're-so-sweet-but-no kind of way. however, he insisted (politely) and i could tell from his physical appearance that he in no way thought there could've been any kind of future interaction between us. so i said "well, thank you . . . but at least take a five . . ." again he declined and said "no, no . . . if you see someone begging for change, please give it to them . . . that's all i ask." he paid for my lunch, i thanked him once again, we got in our separate cars and drove off in different directions. he did this out of the goodness of his heart.
therefore, he has inspired me to do this post. it is rare that we see random acts of kindness just for the sake of being kind. they are very special moments. you know i heard once, that when human beings observe other people being kind to one another (especially strangers) it actually triggers a slight chemical reaction in our brain in which we begin to feel happier. aside from being compassionate to random strangers and accumulating wicked karma, anything we can do each day to improve the world is beyond worth it. it's only through small acts like this that we begin to change the world.
i was with friends the other night, saying farewell to a special young lady who is adventuring off to Ireland to receive her Masters, when one friend brought up an interesting way to dramatically change your life very quickly. the task? no complaining for 6 weeks.
. . . this would be no easy feat.
it would take a tremendous amount of effort and discipline. two things i can run very short of from time to time. i was thinking about writing a post about how much Wal-Mart disgusts me but when i heard of the notion of "no complaining" i decided against it. all i'm going to say is this. in order to help myself and the world around me, two new things will be added to my list of self-improvement . . .
1. no complaining (um, for 6 weeks)
2. abolish information overload one day a week (probably on Sundays) this means no tv, internet, cell phone, blog, facebook, or email
the reason for the second addition is simple. technology is robbing us of face to face interaction with people and our psyches need periodical breaks from the amount of information that is thrown at us on a daily basis. if it was up to me, i would happily go back in time to live in any era from 1900-1970. unfortunately, we have not cracked the code on time travel.
maybe one day . . .
be conscious of your actions. be conscious of how you can do one small thing a day to show the world compassion. and be conscious of how it changes your life. too-da-loo!
Well, look at the ripple effect already. You wrote a post about it. :)
ReplyDeleteI lovelovelove this. Just the other day my mom saw an older lady checking out at the grocery store who appeared to my struggling, my mom noticed and thought she needed help with the self checkout machine so she went over to help her. Sadly, the poor lady didn't have enough money for her groceries, so my mom paid her bill. In addition to helping out the sweet lady just trying to get some eggs and milk, she felt great for the rest of the day, knowing that she helped.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to have read this :)