Pay it ... back?

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." Aesop

The other week I went through the Tim Horton's drive thru and noticed that a dad from my daughter's school was in the car behind me. I wanted to add a nice element of surprise to his day, so I paid for his coffee. I enjoy doing that every once in a while at Tim's. It's fun to drive away and look back to see the surprise on the person's face who has just been told their coffee was covered today. It makes me feel kinda "squishy" inside. A small act, yes, but random and 'fun'.

The next day at the school, the dad thanked me and asked how I took my Tim's. I said, "Oh me, I'm a double double girl!". We smiled and went our separate ways. A few days later he was in front of me at Tim Horton's. I saw him smile into the mirror and wave.

I ordered my 2 large, "double doubles" and drove up to the window to pay. The girl started to hand me an extra large coffee and I said, "I ordered 2 large....". She said, "Well the guy in front of you bought this for you." No problem. I said, "Okay, then just give me one large with that then." She looked at me like I had suddenly grown a third eye and unfortunately for her, she didn't understand the alien language I was speaking. She became discombobulated and poured the extra large coffee in the sink, handed me 2 large and said, "$2.78" with a grimace. I ended up paying for my 2 large coffees, and leaving the extra large that the dad from school had so kindly paid for behind.

I felt terrible. Sadly, his return act of kindness backfired. He should have paid it forward and not back I guess. But it was a nice gesture on his part that brought a smile to my face. I hope he will do it for someone else one day totally randomly, remembering how good it felt when he was the recipient. Pay it forward, folks! Change the world with one random act of kindness at a time.

"To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own." Anne Morrow Lindbergh