Paying it forward

Yesterday, I was one of the last two people out of our office when the early closing was announced. Coming out the back door into the rapidly falling snow, I spied three of my coworkers across the parking lot, merrily brushing the snow off someones car. As I got closer, I could hear them laughing.

"This isn't your car!" Mary Jo said as I got nearer.

"Well, no," I said. "I parked behind you, rather than next to you today."

Giggling, they explained that one smallish black car looked much like another when covered with three inches of snow. Based on where it was parked, they assumed it was my car and didn't realize until they were mostly done that it - wasn't. In the time it took me to open my (real) car door to throw my bag in and grab the snow brush, they had the other car (we think it belongs to someone who works in the Rec Plex) and most of mine brushed off. Many hands indeed make light work - mine was the fifth car they did, and they did one more after it.

In spite of the snow, I stopped at K-Mart on the way home. Hershey Kisses were three bags for $6, and I wanted to make peanut butter kiss cookies for those happy elves. Pulling into a more or less clean parking spot, I could see a man a couple of spots away looking at his car with dismay. What the heck - I grabbed my snow brush and started to help.

He seemed to think I was a little nuts, until I told him someone had done the same for me. He was young middle-agish and able bodied - and we all know how much men enjoy being helped with something that they feel they can do themselves. Still, when he realized I was serious (and had a bigger snow brush than his) he accepted the help with good grace, and he was on his was in minutes.

Once upon a time, doing small kindnesses like that was a regular part of my life. Brushing off a neighbor's car before I leave for work, calling a friend a couple of hours before her party starts to see if she needs some last minute help, or for me to stop at the store, doing last minute baby-sitting. I'm not sure what happened, whether it's the press of life, a (bad) attitude change on my part, or simply the loss of the ability to see the need. At any rate, my prayer is to see more of these opportunities, and to act on them, rather than regret later.