Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and I couldn't have timed my walk more badly when it came to the weather.
This morning I've been looking out of my window,
It's been sunny,
The forecast was for rain and I've been feeling that itch to get out and pretty much as soon as I stepped outside the rain started to steadily come down and that's what's happening now.
You might hear the occasional drip of water as I shelter under a tree which is thick with ivy.
So although the tree is bare branched or bare of leaves the ivy has got this thick green leaf covering on the tree that almost makes it look like the tree is the one with the green leaves and not the ivy.
And today's reflection is quite simple,
It's a little story I heard yesterday my husband told me of someone who came to see me give a talk.
Do you remember I said I gave a talk about the pilgrimage?
I've got another one tomorrow actually which I'm really looking forward to but I was giving this talk about the pilgrimage and one of the people he spoke with shared this story and I loved it.
He's an older woman,
She's done a lot of work in the community,
She's a well-being listener,
If you're interested in well-being listening have a look on the Insight Timer courses because there's well-being listening introduction there.
She's a well-being listener and she supports a lot of what we do,
She runs a little community group for older people.
She's a lovely lovely lady and she came along to the talk,
Quite a long journey for her in what was really horrible weather,
Lots of rain,
Puddles,
Running water,
Tight lanes,
Mud,
But she came down anyway for the talk and as she was speaking to my husband she told him a story and this story is all about paying it forward and I've heard about this before but this is such a brilliant example of it and it's inspired me.
But she was saying to my husband that she the other day was driving and she realised quite soon that she had a flat tyre so she pulled into the car park of a pub and was just considering what she was going to do when somebody came up to her and said do you know you've got a flat tyre and she said yes I do know that and I'm just working out what to do and he said well if you've got a spare I'll change it for you and she was like well that's really kind thank you so much and she said can I pay you for this and he said no and he just went ahead and changed the tyre put the spare tyre on and then she said can I buy you a drink thank to thank you and he said no not at all I just wanted to help out I saw that you needed a hand I was able to help and I just need a crack on now with my day and he he drove off and she was reflecting on this and she thought well I it feels as though this is a little bit imbalanced in so much as he's really really helped me out and he's refused to take anything for it and for his generosity where does this leave me and very clearly it came to her is like I need to pay this forward I need to pay this forward I need to go out and find someone or find a situation where I can pay forward some kindness now in a way she does that all the time anyway with the work that she does in the community and the way that she supports people in her community but she obviously saw something specific about this that she was now going to go out actively and look for somewhere some way someone that she could pay it forward to and this is a really beautiful example for me of a different way of looking at the world like going into the world and rather than maybe mindlessly going through the world which is probably what I do some of the time just sort of getting from A to B and moving on it's about having a way of thinking which is how can I pay it forward what might I do what kindness might I engage with with another person or in a particular situation I've got another friend and she goes to coffee shops and you know those little cards that you get stamped so if you have I don't know 10 stamps on your card you get a free cup of coffee what she does is that every time her card is filled up she hands it in and says can you give somebody a free cup of coffee on me again it's just a very simple gesture of paying it forward so today I'm left with this idea of paying it forward or or looking in life for ways I might be actively kind and compassionate and I'd be really curious what paying it forward means to you whether someone's paid it forward to you or you've been the recipient of an unexpected act of kindness and whether you are the person going out in the world looking to support and be kind to others just be great to know what paying it forward means for you.
