"We cannot hold a torch to light another’s
path without brightening our own."
I've wanted to start a blog for quite a
long time now, and it finally occurred to me to do it after my trip to Costa Rica
(More to come on that in a later post). Today I want to talk about the quote
that begins this post. I think that helping people is one of the greatest
feelings in the world. But when we help someone else, is it okay that it might
help ourselves as well? It is okay if we gain something while giving something?
It is selfish to think that by doing something good for someone else that it
should do something good for me?
Today, while pumping gas, a young woman
approached me and asked for money to help her fill her tank. Instantly, I
shrugged it off, told her that I didn't have any cash to give her (which was
totally true) and let her go on the next person. But something inside of me
started grumbling. How could I refuse to help another person when I just spent
a week helping those in need? I didn't know her story, I didn't know if she was
telling the truth, I didn't know if she would actually use the money for gas or
not. Then I looked behind me, sitting in the passenger seat of her old beat up
truck was her boyfriend and he was sitting with his head leaning on the dash
with a totally worn out, beaten down look. It was as if life had just knocked
him for a loop multiple times. The grumbling inside of me grew stronger and it
made me realize that this is a chance we are given to share the love and
compassion in our lives. This was a chance to make someone else's day a little
bit brighter.
A few months back, on my 25th birthday,
I decided that I was going to do 25 things on my bucket list and in turn help
others accomplish something as well. Now I know that pumping gas into your car
is not on anyone's bucket list but today, it was on my today list. As I was
driving down the road and thinking about getting gas, I decided not to get it
tonight, but my inner voice told me to pull in there. Something was telling me
to go to the gas station and so I did. One of the items on my BL is 33. Help someone in a
time of need and today was the day that I got to cross that one off the
list. After my brain realized what to do, I walked over the pump the couple was
parked at, told her to open her gas tank cap, put my credit card into the
machine and started to fill up her truck. When the dollar amount rolled to $15
she and her boyfriend told me to stop but I told her I would do $20 and the
look on their face was totally worth it. They both didn’t know what to say or
to do and you could tell that no one had ever helped them like that before. She
said they expected to get enough money for maybe a gallon of gas, let alone 5.
She begged me for my phone number, name, or a way to contact me so they could
pay me back but I politely refused and told them to just pay it forward when
they encounter someone else in need. I smiled and said goodbye and drove away
with a deep sense of doing something good.
It is okay to light another's path
while we gain from the light ourselves? I think it is, actually I know it is,
because we are all in this world together. The only think I gained from this is
a good feeling of helping another in a time of need, and if that is wrong, I
don't want to be right.
Light someone else's path and maybe you
will find the way along your own.
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