Paying It Forward

I'm a big fan of the "pay it forward" theory and whenever I do something for someone else and they ask what they can do in return, my reply is always to do for someone else.

It comes when you least expect it. And sometimes it comes after your darkest hour.

Someone, somewhere, does something incredibly kind for you. You don't see it coming and when it happens, it touches the unexplainable.

I will admit, I've been throwing a huge pity party for myself over here. If you don't believe me ... look into my puffy eyes ...

All day I found myself throwing in "and my hard drive crashed" to everyone I talked to. They all had the utmost sympathy. I know we all have been there. But when I added it in response to a group email because they were all referencing a document I no longer had access to ... I got a response I didn't expect.

It was an offer for help. It was an offer to take my hard drive, scrape all the retrievable files off of it, put it onto a fresh hard drive (if it is at all possible) and bring the files back.

I know this can be an expensive process. It was offered to me for free.

Now, I don't know this Mom very well. She gave me the information about the process (her husband would be handling it) and she emphasized that anything taken off my drive would be done in a confidential manner. I can't explain why I believe her or why when she made the offer, it took my own husband less than ten seconds to say it was worth a shot.

It seemed meant to be.

I had a meeting tonight with this gal and several other mothers. About saving a club that has essentially fallen apart. As we walked out together, I turned to her and said I would like to take her up on her offer. We walked to my jeep and I gave her my baby. my laptop.

~cue the dramatic music~

She assured me, again, about keeping confidential about the files. I thanked her for her kindness and told her that I hoped at some point I could return the favor for her. She told me, when she read that one line in my email, she felt compelled to help and that instead of doing for her, to pay it forward ...