The neatest thing happened to me the other day. I am in line at the McDonalds drive-thru for a quick bite to eat. Exhausted after a 12-hour whirlwind workday the day before and little sleep, I get to the check-out window. The guy hands me a receipt. I look at it, confused, wondering why he is handing me the previous customer’s receipt. When I hesitate to take it, he says in broken English: “She pay for you.” She what? Who? “Yes, the lady, she pay for you.” He gestures to the car in front of me at the pick-up window. I flash on a TV commercial where a woman picks up a guy’s dry-cleaning bill as a way of coming on to him. But this doesn’t seem to be a come-on. It’s a female driver with the whole family in the car. “Yes, she say is for Merry Christmas or something.”I didn’t know what to say. I just smiled, honked my horn and waived at the car as it disappeared out of view. It wasn’t a large sum of money. Just a small, random act of kindness. But it totally brightened my day. This is what the “holiday spirit” is all about, isn’t it? People being kind to one another and picking up one another’s tab at the fast food joint. I immediately decided I’m going to pay it forward and do the same thing to someone else. I’ll let you know how it goes! If any of you have had a similar experience, or done something of this kind, I’d love to hear about it.
Why don’t we all go out and spread some more holiday cheer?!
18 comments:
that's very cool.
here from michele's.
What an inspirational event! You're right: the world would be a much better place if more folks engaged in random acts of kindness.
Thanks for sharing this. I followed your link home from Michele's tonight. Nice to e-meet you!
Nice to e-meet you both! ;)
Michele sent me over, Hanulf.
That's a nice story and I've heard that sort of thing happening to several other people as well. I saw quite a bit about it in the news after that movie Pay it Forward came out. It's never happened to me but I don't go out that much so the odds of random kindness hitting me are a lot lower. I avoid people. :-)
That is very cool. I have found myself on both the giving and receiving end of such a gesture - both times at Starbucks (don't ask, I don't know). I never expected the favor to be returned when I felt so compelled myself - but that wasn't what it was really all about anyway.
What a wonderful world it would be...
Michele sent me.
Utenzi: yes, this made me think of that movie, too. Hey, I understand about avoiding people... sometimes you just gotta hide out for awhile ya' know! Good thing you're not avoiding cyber people, tough! hehe
Mr. Althouse: Yes, Starbucks would be a great place to spread such cheer, as I am a frequent visitor there! Thanks for sharing...
Off to see you both!
That's a cool thing for that person to have done. What a lovely lift!
Speaking of lifts, so glad to hear you're enjoying my blog. :)
Hei Hannah!
For en koselig opplevelse. Koselig å höre at en sån USA storesöster som du fortsatt er isblå lengst inne i cellene dine. :D
Crista
Such an awesome story to illustrate everyday-kindness:)
Just wondering - how did u set up the clocks to illustrate the time difference? Would like to do the same on my blog:)
Merry Xmas!
Pearl: Always! :)
Crista: Heisann! Lenge siden sist... :) Åja, litt isdronning har jeg da alltid vært... haha!
Kari: Click on one of my clocks and it will take you to the site where you create them. You can pick any design and enter what time zone you are in. I simply created to different clocks with different time zones. The site creates the code for you, which you then paste into your Blogger template - where you would put your links. Hope that helps! If not, feel free to email me and I'll try to explain it better.
-Your fellow female viking.
You should feel blessed, what a wonderful way to share cheer!
Sage: I do, I do!
And a happy, cheery day to you!
How fabulous! That kind little gesture would have made my day too! I should definitely do that for someone else. Thanks for sharing...I probably wouldn't have thought of it on my own any time soon.
Thank you so much:) I managed to post them on the site - now I just have to figure out how to name the cities the different times are from...lol
Ur devoted female viking
Først; Tusen takk for kommentar i bloggen min og god reise tilbake til Norge!
Det er så godt å lese sånne historier som du skriver om. Over alt blir man stadig påminnet om hvor kynisk verden har blitt og til slutt kan man nesten lure om all medmenneskelighet er på vei til å forsvinne. En sånn hendelse får en til å få tro på at mennesker faktisk bryr seg om hverandre og som du sier.... når man opplever noe sånt får man lyst til å "pay it forward".
Renee: Yes, it was such a nice thing to do. I haven't succeeded in returning the favor, yet... I guess I'm just not accustomed to such generosity towards strangers, because I keep forgetting until AFTER I have left someplace. But I swear I'll do it someday!
Kari: Glad you figured it out! Here's a tip: what I did, was simply copy the code for the other titles in the sidebar, such as "Previous Posts" and "Archives", and then replace the name text with the city in question. Hope that helps!
Prinsessen: Jo verden hadde nok blitt et bedre sted om vi alle tenkte - og handlet - mer ut ifra andres behov og ikke bare tenkte på oss selv hele tiden. Jeg har fortsatt ikke klart å gjengjelde denne hendelsen, men gir ikke opp... jobber altså fortsatt med saken! ;)
Hi Hannah:
It was so good to see your blog again. Mom and I really enjoyed it, especially this nice episode at the McDonald's drive through. It was wonderful to see you both over the Christmas holidays. We love you very much. Dad.
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