Awake

Coloring inspires "pay it forward" random act of kindness?

It was another sunny (albeit cool) day in Ashland. I decided to treat myself to lunch at Zoey's Cafe across from the Ashland Springs Hotel downtown. They have a divine salad with blue cheese crumbles, seasoned chicken, candied walnuts and a vinaigrette dressing that I adore. I am quietly munching on my salad when a couple walks in and seats themselves in the booth directly in front of me. After a while I deduce that they are a honeymooning couple from Canada (cell phone conversation plus a fair bit of schmoopiness). I finish my salad and decide to finish coloring the "Control of Ion Channels by Membrane Potential" page in my Physiology Coloring Book while I finish my mug of Chai.

The couple move from the booth to the gelato counter to decide on two pints. Gelato in hand, they return to the booth to collect their belongings. I continue to "mind my own business" even though in reality I'm observing them to my own amusement. Coloring the depolarization early stage's Sodium ions rushing through the slow gate, I glance at my Chai and note with dismay that it is, at last, empty. The male half of the honeymooners goes to the counter to pay and they leave, leaving me to find the bright blue I selected for the ever-leaking Potassium ions. Several minutes later, my server approaches.

"You know the man who was sitting in front of you?"

"Yeah," I reply with curiosity.

"He wants to pay for another Chai. That is, he already paid for it. Do you want me to just apply it to your bill?"

"Wha?" I grinned incredulously. And with several more exchanges of bewildered amusement, she returns to say that when he was paying his own bill, he added, "Oh, and one more thing. That girl with the coloring book? I want to buy her another tea or whatever she's drinking."

After several retellings of the tale back at the salon, the general deduction is that this was, in fact, a "pay it forward" moment. You know what I'm talking about. It's when you do something for someone in advance of their kindness, instead of in return of it. Likely inspired by the movie, Pay It Forward or perhaps by this recent news story of Starbucks customers paying for the coffee of the person behind them.

Evidently my mission is clear. It's now my turn to pay it forward to someone else. What a crazy and kind world we live in. Who knew?

Happy paying it forward.