You may have heard a story about someone who was in a drive-thru lane at their local fast food restaurant (one of the five hundred local fast food joints) and pulled up to pay for their food, only to find out that the car ahead of them had already paid for their food. That is a fairly common scenario nowadays, thankfully. I recently read on a Facebook post where someone was saying that is great, but how about helping someone who really needs the help? This particular persons’ scenario involved a patron at Starbucks, his argument was that obviously, the person in a drive-thru at Starbucks doesn’t need to have their $8 coffee paid for, they can afford it or they wouldn’t be there. He was saying, spend your money on someone else, maybe put that money into the tip jar to help the person who served you. While I understand what he was saying, I think it’s sometimes less about the money and more about the act of kindness in the gesture itself that is important.
I think I have talked about this before but… once I was on the receiving end of such an act of kindness (well more than once) and it meant more to me than the person who covered the bill will ever know. My family and I were out of state, attending my grandmother’s funeral. It was the evening after the funeral. We had food of course afterward, provided probably by my grandmother’s church. We hadn’t felt much like eating at the time. But, after a long hard day, we thought we’d go out for a nice meal at our favorite steakhouse in the area. We weren’t particularly chatty that evening, other than a few laughs with memories that popped into our heads of my grandmother and something she had done with us or said to us. We had a very nice meal, and when it was time for the check, the waitress let us know that someone had paid for our entire meal, anonymously. She didn’t even know who had done it, she was told by another server that it was paid for by someone. We looked around and didn’t recognize anyone dining there. We were out of state, and the chances we would know anyone would have been slim. The cost for a meal for a family of four at a very nice steakhouse definitely was not cheap! The money we saved was a nice surprise, but the gesture of kindness on that particular day, at that particular time was priceless. Whoever paid for our meal wouldn’t have known that I just had one of the hardest days ever. They also probably wouldn’t have guessed how sad we all were because we had been laughing from time to time remembering stories from the past.
I remember another time in a restaurant, my family was eating out, and I was struggling to eat by myself, due to muscle loss in my arms thanks to ALS. This was a long time ago because I haven’t been able to do that in a long time. Well, when the people at the table across from us got up to leave, the gentleman stopped over by me and said with a smile, “I know it’s hard to keep getting out, but you just keep doing it!” He was right, it was hard. I have continued to do it, as much as possible.
When you help another person by paying for a meal, or a coffee, or an action of kindness, you will never know what that might mean to the recipient. It’s not just the money, but the gesture itself that means so much. You don’t even need to spend any money. Just a kind word can make all the difference. So, try to spread a little kindness this holiday season. Remember, what goes around, comes around. Give and you will also receive.
Incurably Happy Life 