PAYING it FWD

One year of living in my own place, and I'd accumulated enough junk to make it look like an excavation site. I felt so ashamed looking at the bag upon black bag of unwanted & unused 'stuff' that I'd collected over the years.

Having been witness to my mom packing up her life of 23 years in the same house, and my relatively short shot at independence, we had both accumulated enough for a millennium boot sale. It seems like the Neanderthal hunter-gather in me, had a bad habit of monkeying around in my flat.

I felt ashamed (again, for emphasis). Ashamed that I had collected so many unnecessary possessions, hording them to myself incase I ever fit into my size midget jeans again, or the 80's Gourmet Classic Recipe Book, should I have the urge to cook Duck Orange (stove-slaving being a painful past-time).

So you may ask what I did with all this stuff? Well I donated what I could to St John's Methodist Church (and this included an array of kitchen utensils) as well as clothes, odds-and-ends, more unused stuff and the like.

After donating too many bags to the same place, I realised that I should be making work of distributing these goodies to a wider crowd.

And so it was that I discovered Rolands. Well atleast he discovered me. Driving past St Georges you will see the most awesome display of fresh-farm mango, prickly pears, juicy nectarines, export sized apples and such. Ofcourse I went bananas and spent an unusually generous portion of the remaining R300.00 bank balance (the rest  spent on travels:-))

The fruit is deterring me from the story...Back to Rolands.

He had the biggest smile and I could see he looked somewhat different to our folk. He told me he was Malawian.

Well that was all the ammo I needed and subsequently drove back and forth giving him bags of goodies, which he was soooo excited about.

(Reason for donation: Felt Rolands was a worthy candidate - making a home away from home must be tough call amidst a xenophobe riddled nation).

Apart from going on the major explorative journey (of the world and self), my big personal mission this year is to pay it forward.

Not even sure how to start, there is so much need, and I do have a habit of becoming selfish with my time and energy when life becomes busy.

I promised myself that paying it forward has to be a long term investment, not a fly by night enthusiasm.

I have seen the positive impact other people have had on my life. Paying it forward doesn't have to involve volunteer work; it can simply involve kindness, in word, thought or deed (the more the merrier!). There are a million-trillion things we can do every day.

I'm no fortune cookie lady, but I bet if you make a conscious decision to make a difference TODAY and EVERY day going forward, you will see your life blessed beyond your wildest dreams. It’s funny how when we focus less on ourselves, we suddenly drown out all the senseless chitter-chatter that goes on inside and become more part of what’s happening outside.

We get so caught up on our own little microcosms, that we forget what it feels like to be part of something greater than ourselves. By shifting our awareness, we shift our way of being - to one of being - positive, passionate and purposeful.

To Paying It Forward

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