Pay it Forward

For the Love of Shoveling 

Yesterday I spent more than 4 hours shoveling. Most people would say that shoveling for that long is just ridiculous, a waste of manual labor hours, silly or unfortunate. I spend the time shoveling very well. To get ready for most shoveling expeditions, I prepare as if I am going skiing, except I am just going to be moving snow from point a to point b.

Attire:

• ski socks
• snow pants
• long sleeve dry fit
• Columbia jacket
• face warmer
• mittens (way better than gloves)
• hat

Ancillary Pieces:

• cell phone
• book (top choice over music) to listen to
• head phones
• Chapstick
• gum
• tissues (in case you've got a leaky faucet)
• shovel
• roof rake
• beverage getting frosty in the garage

  

  Gooning it up with an icicle.

Yesterday I was actually really excited to be out shoveling. You see I have a book that I've been listening to every time I get into my car. And with school vacation this week, I won't be able to finish the book. No trips to school this week, no listening. So it may sound strange but I was really looking forward to get outside to shovel.

As I was getting into my zone, putting on my attire and double checking all my ancillary pieces I stopped to think, could my shoveling day get any better? Yes!

My neighbor from across the street brought his snow blower over and said, "Save your back. Here, use my snow blower." What a guy. Now I get to play with a machine that throws snow (I would have loved this as a kid) while listening to my book through my phone! A snow blower is like a mobile power tool. I'm getting excited thinking about it again.

Could my shoveling day get any better? Yes!

As my neighbor walked back to his house, he stopped and talked to a guy who had a plow on the front of his truck. That didn't strike me as odd or anything like that. Especially since my neighbor knows everyone. I stated the snow blower up and started working on the end of the driveway. Over the sound of the engine and the narrator, I hear my neighbor yelling out, "Chris, Stephen is going to plow the front of your driveway."Are you kidding me?

As the guy with the plow drives up, I realize that his parents lives next door to me. They are older and wanted to make sure neither one of his parents went outside to do any snow removal. He was plowed for them and decided to help me out. What a guy?

So I watched the truck go back and forth and realized what the plow did in 5 minutes would have taken the snow blower 15 minutes and my back/arms around 40 minutes. A couple of things went through me mind. I am really lucky, nope, that is not it. I must have paid it forward sometime ago and things are going full circle, that must be it.

Example of Me Paying it Forward

A couple of weeks ago when we had 16 inches, I shoveled my driveway, the neighbor's driveway who let me borrow his snow blower and another neighbor's driveway who lives across the street from me. Now, we knew that certain neighbors had left to go vacation so we said that we'd take care of their driveway. They'd do the same for us. However, on my short walk home I saw a neighbor, Josie, who recently had rotator cuff surgery outside shoveling her driveway. I probably should mention that she stopped working because she's out on disability.

So, I went over to help her shovel. After 40 minutes or so I finished up and went home. Two days later it snowed just over 2 feet. After getting help from another neighbor who likes to talk basketball with me I was inside warming up. Kim decided to look out the window to admire the handiwork of moving snow. She says, "Chris! Do you see what Josie is doing?" I look out the window and see that Josie was snow blowing her driveway. Seriously. I couldn't make that up. I definitely paid it forward when I shoveled the driveway of a person who decided they didn't want to use their snow blower.

Call to Action

What advice do I have for others about paying it forward? Believe it or not, I have none. You should do what's right all the time. That is hard to do. Especially when you really don't want to. At times, you might not want to stop what your doing to to help someone else because of the inconvenience it may cause you. There are plenty of times I don't want to stop what I'm doing for someone else. However, I've always said, "If it were easy everyone would do it." It is even harder to do the right thing and not expect something in return. All I can say is aspire to be the best person you can. What else can anyone ask of you?