Paying It Foward

I am not good at keeping track of peoples’ birthdays. I do not even know many of the most important ones by heart. I usually ask my mother—she writes them down and then reminds me. Often I relate the date of a birthday to the closest holiday it falls on. My father’s birthday was on Thanksgiving—even though the date of the holiday changed from year to year.

On my birthday this year, I received a pleasant surprise—a gift from my neighbor (and friend) Kathy. It was a plaque that read The perfect shoe can change your life—a quote from Cinderella. I was elated. Kathy and I do not exchange gifts. This was a gift out of the blue.

And I called her to thank her. And Kathy told me that on her birthday, someone had given her a gift—just to be nice. Kathy felt it was the best gift she had received that day—precisely because it was so unexpected---she was not close friends with the gift giver.  And the person who gave the gift to her expected nothing in return. So Kathy decided to the same for someone else when the time seemed right—and she chose me to be the recipient. She told me that she enjoyed my writing and she wanted to acknowledge it—so she paid a kindness forward.

And I will do the same. I will give an unexpected gift to someone I would normally not exchange gifts with on their birthday. It feels like the right thing to do. It will make that person’s birthday as special as it made mine and Kathy’s when we received our pay it forward gift. Luckily I am on Facebook now so I can plan when and who to give the gift to—Facebook reminds you about friends’ birthdays.  And since many of my facebook friends are not real “friend” friends, giving one of them a gift will be perfect.

The plaque Kathy gave me is hung on my side door for all who enter to see. And Kathy got the gift right too—it makes me giggle. I love the humor it expresses. I have already used the quote from Cinderella in a blog post. Maybe the plaque should have read the perfect gift can change your life—or the perfect friend and neighbor.