Circle of Trust

I recently watched a show on the history channel about a married couple, the husband and wife were both blind.  I came in mid-way through the show, so I’m not sure if they were blind form birth or not… that’s not important.  It seems that the couple had a wonderful, loving marriage.  The wife said she loved their life together and she wouldn’t change a thing; however, she did mention a disadvantage she and her husband faced compared to couples who had sight, it was more difficult for them to read clues as to when one might want to be intimate.  She suggested a solution to her husband-  When they went to bed at night, if he was ‘in the mood’, he should reach over to her squeeze her breast one time.  If he wasn’t in the mood, he should squeeze her breast twice.  The husband thought for a moment and replied, “Sounds good.  Same goes for you, if you’re in the mood, reach over and tug my crank one time.  And if you’re not in the mood, reach over and tug my crank 647 times.”

I told a joke to kick off the CoT today to illustrate a point:  Being kind to someone can take as little time and effort as it takes to tell a joke.  Also, that joke cracks me up and I just wanted to share it.

Throughout my Jr. High and High School years, I was incredibly fortunate to have many people, mainly my aunts and uncles, as well as my friends’ parents who were tremendously kind and caring to me.  Once my children reached their middle school years, I thought back to when I was their age and I couldn’t help but remember being on the receiving end of those countless acts of kindness.

I felt an incredible burden of debt.  I spent considerable time contemplating ways to pay back their kindness.  Unfortunately, I realized that I could never repay these people who mean so much to me; thankfully, I have been able to thank most of these great folks over the years.  Whenever I expressed some regret at being unable to repay them for their past kindness to me, each and every one, in their own way, insisted that they never expected any sort of pay back, in fact, they never even expected a “thank you.”

It was about this time the movie “Pay it Forward” came out.  I have never seen it, but I got the gist from the previews, and its message was exactly what I needed at the time to help me unwind my burden of debt:  Simply repay all the kindness I received over the years by paying it forward.

I was reminded of this recently when I came across the following quote:  “The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.”  ~ Julia Alvarez

We’ve all benefitted from some act of kindness from someone, be thankful for that and remember, there’s no need for massive gestures-  You’re given countless opportunities daily, do your best to take advantage of every opportunity you get to pass kindness on.