Here I will tell you what exactly drives me and motivates me to do what I am doing. Hopefully this will explain to many the big question as to… “WHY?”
I also hope that this will bring attention to everyone in their own mindset to better their daily lives. The world has changed, the economy, the ways people look and treat money in general as an asset. Many claim that money is the root of all evil, however it can also make a person happy too. I’m not here to argue on that claim, but I am here to explain and express something that hopefully will click with others. I will start by telling my story and motive behind this site.
One day I had a moment in my life where I alone and was down. I was hungry and had a limited budget to live on at that point in time. I decided to go out for Chinese that late evening, a buffet as a matter of fact. I of course finished my meal and the waitress brought me my bill along with the usual fortune cookie.
I of course looked at my bill, set it aside and cracked open my fortune cookie. The fortune cookie that I to this day will never forget read:
“To Have A Friend, Be A Friend”
I ignored it and laid it down.
I got up, paid my bill and walked out the front door. As I was walking towards my vehicle I was approached by a man on a bicycle. You know, the “usual beggars”…
Yes I admit, I never do give out money to people begging and asking for money on the streets. Always hear the old sayings of they wait for you to get out your wallet then rob you, the old story of running out of gas, need money for this, etc… You give them cash and they take off to buy their drugs to support their bad habits.
But, this one was a little different. The older man on the bicycle was deaf, couldn’t speak and was trying to sign to me. I didn’t know sign language, so the man took out his bible which had a small piece of paper folded up in it. He then proceeded to write “I am diabetic and I am hungry”. He then proceeded to pull out his insulin kit to show me.
Now many things in this story so far shows multiple trigger tactics that beggars will use to get money from strangers. Keywords being “deaf, bible, diabetic”. This hits the sense of many people with religious beliefs, feel sorry attitude for the deaf, and feel sorry for the medical disorder/illness. Not only to add to this image of an older male with raggy clothes, and a beat up rusted bicycle.
Many would run from this situation thinking this guy is trying to scam them. Maybe, Maybe not…
I pointed up to the Chinese restaurant I had just came out of and the man made a motion of eating with his hands and shaking his head yes. The man was hungry, he was diabetic and needed food.
FACT: People with some types of diabetes need daily injections of insulin. They must balance their daily intake of food and activities carefully with their insulin shots to stay alive.
With me being on a strict budget, something about that fortune cookie stuck to me. Even though I didn’t keep that fortune (I wish I did) it has stuck with me and embedded it’s self in my ways of thinking.
I took the man into the Chinese restaurant and bought the man a buffet. He thanked me, and I went on my way.
Fast forward a couple days later I’m driving around town and I see this same man pedaling down the street. I happen to think to myself, what if? What if I didn’t get that man some food?
Did that man do anything for me in return? No. Maybe he did and I didn’t catch it, or maybe it isn’t his purpose to pay it forward to me. The way paying it forward works doesn’t always come directly from the person whom you paid it forward to. It will come from another source whether you notice it or not. In the pay it forward concept you may pay someone big and it be paid back to you big also. Sometimes it may come in little at a time. Sometimes so little you won’t even recognize it.
Some people take things in life for granted…be thankful for the small things in life.
The Lord’s angels at work, testing us and reminding us that our life could always be just like theirs.
With this being said, all I ask in return if you receive a dollar from me or not.
Pay it forward