106 - Pay it Forward - Random Acts of Kindness

Transcript may vary slightly from audio. 

Intro
 Hi this is Lindy, the creator and host of Lindy’s Audio Cafe, a podcast focused on positive and thought-provoking stories. Life gets busy, in the race for happiness we sometimes forget it’s often the smaller things in life that truly matter.  My podcast is focused on the stories that don’t make tabloids,  the basics that make you smile, the kindness of people who help make the world a better place. Ya, we need a bit more of that. But before we get started, please be sure to hit subscribe on your podcast app, so you don’t miss future episodes. Thanks for listening!

00:00

Headphones on…got my mic….all right, I think I got it together. Hi everyone it’s Lindy here, and I’m delighted to be back in the podcast chair. Before I get started, a quick note about me. I live on Vancouver Island, right here in Canada, and I am a hobby podcaster, and a one-person team.   I record, edit and produce the show, all on my own, with a bit of supervision from my 12-year-old poodle, Ozzie the Studio Hound. Ya, he’s sitting right here behind me. I am changing things up a bit.  Usually I record my podcasts in the morning, when I am bright-eyed and full of energy.  I’m usually an early bird, and then I fall asleep early on the couch at night and snore. (snore sounds)  Oh, then I stop and ask my partner what’s going on in the show. Yeah, I’m one of those. Oops!  Beautiful…not! Oh, well, anyway, today I  felt like I needed to grab the mic and simply chat about Paying it Forward., and you’ll find out a little bit later as to why I felt I need to do it, it’s basically something that -happened to me today. 

1:42

So, what is Paying it Forward?  I googled it, and discovered there is a movie with that title.  Well, that’s something new I learned today.  What I also read online is that to “pay it forward” is that when someone does something nice for you, instead of reciprocating the favor to that person, you pass on the kindness to someone else.  Wow!  What a great concept!  Imagine if every day was Pay it Forward Day.  In the world of some people, it truly is.

02:08

I live in a rural residential area, and I often walk a variety of trails near my home or just  a short drive away.  Many of the trails that are run by the regional districts have garbage bins, outhouses, groomed trails and people who come every day to tidy up.   We also other trails that are not managed by any district and it’s up to the people who walk those trails to take care and pride in the environment.

Last fall I was headed out to walk my dog with my partner, and it was much to our dismay that someone had dumped a huge load of old beat up tires at the beginning of the trail.  We were both so disgusted.  It’s a beautiful area, home to deer, birds and yes, likely even a few cougars and bears.  It’s also our home, and by ours I mean home to everyone in the neighborhood who enjoys that trail.  Those tires were so huge.  They were the big dually-type tires that you see on huge trucks.   We came home, made some phone calls to the area district, but it didn’t appear any authority would be out anytime soon to pick up those tires.  We grabbed our truck, and bless my partner he scooped up those big heavy tires and put them in the back of the truck.  They were not light tires, and it honestly pissed me off that here is my partner, he’s a senior, and he’s out there busting his butt cleaning up crap that some lazy asshole dumped near the woods.  We came back home, and he made some phone calls to Tire Places.  At first he was told we would have to personally pay the disposal fee to a tire shop and I get that, because they likely have to pay a disposal fee also.  The second place he called was really kind, and they listened to his story as he told them they weren’t even our tires, we were just trying to clean up someone else’s mess. I was so impressed with Kal Tire in Courtenay.  They took the tires from him and did not charge him.  Not only did we consider that to be super community minded, we remembered to tell people that we knew if they needed new tires, go visit the guy at Kal Tire in Courtenay.  In this case, the kindness of their business will bring more business because we will tell anyone we know that needs new tires how they helped us to dispose of a mess that wasn’t even ours.  I hesitated to mention their name, because I wouldn’t want people to think “oh any time I need to get rid of tires I’ll just dump them there” because that wouldn’t be right.  They still pay the wages of the guys that helped unload them, plus I am sure they have to pay disposal fees also.  I mentioned them because they simply did a kind thing, no expectation in return.  I can’t say they can do it all the time, as they are a business and not a drop-off disposal place, but their act of kindness went a long way.

04:48

Have you ever been in a restaurant, or at the drive-thru, and when you go to pay your bill, it’s already paid for?  That is such a fun thing, and it always just makes you feel good inside when you know there are people in this world who are out there, simply promoting random acts of kindness, with no expectation of anything in return.

I’ve done the old “Pay it Forward” thing in the drive-thru a few times.   Once I ended up spending a bit more than I hoped, because the person behind me was picking up for a lot of people.  Oops, oh well, I had the option to back out and if anything, I guess I just made a few people happy and not just the driver in the car.  Why have I done it?  Because it happened to me once, and I remember how shocked I was.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have money for coffee, again it was just that good old feeling of inner warmth because there are still kind people in this world.

There are a lot of people in this world who are simply kind, and we don’t always see that.  In their own way, they are doing a form of “Pay it Forward” but it’s not as recognizable as paying for 2 latte’s at the drive-through. 

05:54

My partner has a wealth of experience in building renovations, and it’s not uncommon for people to ask for a “bit of a hand” with this or that, or a little advice on how to get started, and he often does his best to help out where he can.  My son is a computer tech, and I can’t count the number of times he has helped seniors with setting up computers, hooking up new tv’s.  Just last week he was helping a neighbor who was struggling, and most of these people are seniors on a tight budget who just need a little bit of help.   He even bailed out this old podcaster a time or two when videos for YouTube weren’t rendering properly.

My friend Brenda plays piano for seniors.  Kayla is coordinating a group for the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser, a walk to raise funds to help raise money for people experiencing hurt, hunger and homelessness. A few of my friends are involved in this.

I have another friend who is someone I call the silent saint.  Yes, Donna is constantly helping others, and I don’t think there is ever a day in her week where she isn’t helping someone. 

Pay it forward is a bit different than volunteering, although the concept is still the same.  Simply being kind and being a good human towards others.  

A few people have asked me if I think you need to buy the car behind you drinks if the person in front of you pays for yours at the drive-thru. I don’t think you have to.  I think you can smile, appreciate the kindness of that complimentary coffee and know that you will do something similar at another time.  You choice, you could always go ahead and pay for the car behind but then it’s an obligation and not a “just because”.   If you do and it stops there, that’s ok.  It was about your intent to be kind, and you don’t know what the ability is of the person behind you to pay it forward.  Maybe they can afford their cup of coffee but don’t have funds to buy lunch if that’s what the car behind ordered. No matter what, it’s about the original intent of being kind.

Sometimes when you do favors for people, they will like they have to return the favor.  A friend of ours told me if he helps you with something at your house, he doesn’t want a gift card in return.  He just wants a thank you, just say thanks to himand call it a day. It actually makes him feel uncomfortable if he helps someone and they try to buy him a gift. He always says “just pay it forward, I’ll do something kind for you, you do something kind for someone else. That’s just how he works. 

08:23

Today, just before I recorded this podcast, I arrived home, grabbed my rubber boots, a handy grabber and recycling bags.   A few weeks ago someone jerks threw a bunch of beer cans into the bushes near our walking trail. I am guessing there were a couple dozen beer cans strewn in the bushes, and the bushes were in swampy messy areas near the road.  Not something I could tackle without proper boots.  I had noticed fast food containers added to it, and then someone dropped an old piece of wood with nails.  It bugged me, and today I made up my mind I was going to drive there with the right gear to clean it up.  I grumbled inside, and thought “if all these people walk by every day and enjoy this trail, and we did the tires, can’t someone else do the cans?”.  As I reached the end of the rode in my car, and pulled up to the trailhead, I had a nice feeling inside because I knew I was about to do something nice.  If I could wade through the muck in my rubber boots and clean up those cans, it would help bring the pristine look to that area and make a better home for the animals.  I felt good inside, knowing I was about to do something good.  I opened the door, pulled my boots out of the passenger side, picked up my handy grabber and then headed to where the cans had sat for a number of weeks.  They were gone!  I was shocked – someone else had been there and cleaned it up.  I felt gratitude inside, and not because I was too lazy to do it, but grateful that someone else had taken the time and effort to do a silent task that would make life better for someone else.   Wow – thank you to whoever picked up those cans and the garbage.  In a way I felt like the Pay it Forward concept had just happened in our own neighborhood, but on a different level.

10:19
 It's always nice when someone does something unexpected.  I also love it when people do kind things for others, especially when they are not out running to tell the world about it.   It’s not about getting pats on the back on social media, it’s simply about being kind.

Imagine if we could name every day Pay it Forward Day, and you didn’t even have to wait for something good to happen to you before you did something nice for another person.  Everyone can be the team leader when it comes to Pay it Forward, and what a wonderful world it could be if with every person, every day, it happened.  Wow – wouldn’t that be wonderful. Ya, I loved that concept.  Pay it Forward, Pay it Forward Day Everyday! 

11:02 

Ah, now I better head out here, but  before I head out, I just want to mention very quickly I did put a shout-out on my Lindy’s Audio Cafe Facebook group page this past week. I am gathering some neighborly stories with positive endings. It kind of involves some kindness as well.   Do you have a neighbor that made a positive difference in your life?  Was your neighbor that handy-person who was always there for you when you needed a hand?  Perhaps your neighbor looked after your kids when you were really needing help, or climbed a tree to rescue your cat. Who knows?  Did you ever start out on the wrong side of the fence with a neighbor, and eventually you resolved your issue and became great friends?  Perhaps I can share your story on my next episode.  I’m not looking for a long story, just a couple minutes, something short, sweet and to the point, if you want to share something quick to kind of help highlight the kindness of other people in the world – happy stories.  If you want to share it, just head on over to Lindy’s Audio Cafe Podcast page on Facebook and  comment on my post  if you’d like to share your story.  I hope to record the next episode prior to Valentine’s Day.  Oh… Valentine’s Day…..crap – look at that - that’s another topic all together. Anway, I just thought I’d mention that, that I wouldn’t mind including your story if you’ve got a happy story with some positive kindness to it about your neighbors. 

12:29

Anyway, thanks for listening everyone.  If you appreciate the show and you would like to show your support, I do have a link in the show notes where you can support the show through “Buy Me a Coffee”.  Not expected, but always appreciated.  Oh, and if I happen to get a coffee, I might even pay it forward at the drive-thru.

All right, ok, have a great day everybody, thank you so much for listening and remember what I always say as I head out, smiles come in all languages and in all colors. Take care, have a good day. Bye!


Audio script written by Linda Leverman. 
© Lindy's Audio Cafe 2024