Greenville Forward Thinking Creating Community Conversation to Inspire Change

I read last week in one of my various social media scans of a coffee shop with a patron who will occasionally purchase a cup of coffee and leave $100 to be used to buy drinks for others until the money runs out. The patron would stop by weekly and eventually, her actions caught on — most anyone who visits the coffee shop will receive a free treat or will leave money to pay for one for another.

This concept really shook me. In our modern world, we hear all the time about how folks are retreating within themselves most of the time — leaving the bulk of their interaction to that behind a screen. But a story like this one, about someone who truly “pays it forward” — to be cliché — is really inspiring.

I’ve started listening for similar stories around Greenville. I heard of the man who complimented a fellow YMCA goer on how he noticed she is always there, working really hard, and wanted her to know it was paying off. And of the Starbucks employee who gave away some coffee to thank a loyal customer. The friend who bought a hungry man’s groceries. Or of the neighbor who walks her dog every morning and moves papers thrown in yards to porches so they won’t get wet or so her neighbors won’t have to venture too far in the cold to pick them up.

All of these little actions have an impact — whether it lasts five minutes or stays with you so much that you share the story with someone else and walk with a smile all day. It is certainly powerful to think about how easy it is to take an extra, small step to change someone’s day.

So the point of all of this is not to tell you to go out and do something small but just to encourage you to notice when it happens and if this “noticing” leads to action of your own, well that might just be paying it forward after all…