Growing up in a Midwest farming community, I volunteered a lot. It was a way of life. When adversity struck one family, the neighbors and the community came together. They still do. But as a whole the nation is more secluded and less willing to walk out their front door for a neighbor in need.
Cruiser have a great library system. Every anchorage, every marina there seems to be a trading library where we share books read and find new books to read. This summer I picked up an older book, Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I had no idea it was fiction as I started reading or that it became such a movement. I was enamored by the story of a simple child making such a huge difference.
And then I thought, we do that, pay it forward. In the cruising community we’ve been beneficiaries of kindness and we’ve extended kindness to others. When the first cruiser GAVE us $100 plus piece of equipment to replace a crucial broken block, we were flabbergasted. Since then it has become more the norm than the exception. Folks want to repay us for simple conversation on this life we lead and we won’t let them, telling the story of paying it forward. All this before I’d read the book.
In April, we didn’t hesitate to help a fellow cruiser during a storm when dock lines broke and his boat was about to go free. Only to find when all was said and done, a tornado had ripped through town not more than two miles away. It may be second nature to us, but in the blogging community my hope is being re-instilled in the human race as I read Jillian Dodd talk about Philanthropy Thursday and Patricia Sands posted two articles on Random Acts of Kindness and Gentillesse Grattitude – Free Kindness . Not to mention all the blog love I’ve received.
There’s more of us out here than I realized and I hope we can go back to the neighborhoods and communities forgetting the political right and wrongs and become caring humans once again. It only takes one.
How have your lives been affected? What have you done to affect others? I’d love to hear your story.
I love this post. It’s so true how we all have amazing stories of friends, families, and towns coming together to help each other weather through storms. I agree, I love Jillian and Patricia’s posts on giving back and that they shine a light on its importance. So ahhhmazing!
Have you seen the movie Pay It Forward? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/ If not, you definitely should – heart warming – I cried like a baby!
I try to always remember that I can afford to be generous with my money, my time, my love, my friendship and my heart….
No I haven’t seen the movie, thanks for the link. I’d really like to though, I’ll remember the tissue box as I’ll probably shed tears as well.
seriously. remember the tissues.
I will. I think I used a box at the end of the book.
To me paying forward it the way of life. I love helping others, making a difference in their lives and I don’t expect to be rewarded for it. It just feels great to be a good Samaritan.
Wonderful post, Nancy!
You said it Angela, it’s great when paying it forward is a way of life.
Physical limitations prevent much active volunteering, but I like helping in little bits when I can if someone is struggling. A woman in a long skirt, kerchief, and with missing teeth, was rifling through trash cans outside a vitamin store and I called her to my car window and gave her $20. She wanted to give me change, thought it was too much. What a sweetheart. She got tears in her eyes and said “God Bless You” about ten times before I told her He already had with her bright smile, before I drove away. When big disasters strike, I rely on the Red Cross with our donations. Great post, Nancy.
I love it when people are shocked by generosity. What a great feeling.
I like to think I pay it forward ….maybe not in huge world changing ways, but today I may help you with your blog (or wooooodie might) and six months down the road you might help someone else with theirs. Or in the restaurant biz, sending out a bunch of food to the firefighters after a big fire, or habitat for humanity. All little things, but I hope they do some good!
Great post Nancy!
It’s really the little things that make a difference and everyday, when we can we should pay it forward. I like Angela’s “it’s a way of life.”
I pay it forward by cooking. I love to cook and that’s one thing I feel totally comfortable and confident at…also feeding people brings a certain joy at the end of the work. I have cooked at soup kitchens and community events, but I also cook at home — to feed the family, cheer up a friend, or celebrate someone. 🙂
Wonderful talent and yes, I’d say you pay it forward. Thanks for coming aboard.
I love this Nancy! I agree with what everyone else has said. “It is a way of life” and it is a positive energy I wish more people possessed (talking about the “takers” in life). When I do favors or generally help out others, I’m not looking for the instant payback. I’ll even tell strangers to just take care of someone else next time. I now understand, growing up, what adults meant when they yearned for the civility of past years. Some days I’d like the slower, instant tech-free, talk to people face-to-face pace of my childhood in the 70’s.
Barbara, I think that’s what I like about the cruising community. We may not see each other for years, yet, when we come together, it’s the face to face family like time of days gone by.
Beautiful post. 🙂 I make cat blankets a couple times a year to donate to the shelter where I got my kitty. I was so impressed with their organization and how they operated that I wanted to give back in some way.
It is nice to see how amazed people are when you do something nice for them, but also sad that it is so shocking. We have lots of opportunities to give back through donations, but our society doesn’t exactly encourage good Samaritan behavior. I offered to help out a woman floundering at an adoption fair because none of the other volunteers showed up and she was alone. She thanked me, but said it would be a liability. :-/
Wow Angela, I agree. People give money before they give their time. The fact people are so shocked by receiving speaks volumns. Let’s pass it forward.
It truely is a way of life. I always do a kindness when I can. Simply becasue I like doing for others. Sometimes a simple *Hello and smile* will do. DH is always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone … the driver on the side of the road changing a flat, a friend trying to roof the house alone, the list is long. We where on the recieving end of many kindnesses when we had our house fire. So we also know that feeling. It really is a blessing. Hugs…
Carol, you are truely an amazing person. I’m the recipient of many of your gifts of kindness.
Nancy. What a great post. I do miss the sailing life but ‘paying it forward’ still applies when I get the opportunity. When a person gives without expectation they receive benefit in so many ways. The gift they get in return is a soulful contentment. Worth much more than money or even a pat on the back.
Very well said Dannie!
Great post Nancy! It’s so good to hear all of these stories and to be reminded of how kind most people are. The more we talk about this, the better it gets. Onward!
Agreed! The more we talk, the more we do, the better chance more will do. The world will be such a better place. Onward!