Paying it forward
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Acrylic painted rope bowl.
I’ve been busy making recently (too busy making to blog anything apparently!) and it’s been all about sharing the love around here at the moment.
I’ve been working on some gifts for a pay it forward initiative. I agreed to do this months and months ago with the idea that the 5 people who volunteered would get a gift from me in return for paying it forward to 5 others. It was really interesting to see who responded to my message, some were dear family members, some close friends, others I haven’t seen since high school.
The agreement was that I would send them something over the next year, when inspiration struck and I found something that I thought they would like. It’s taken me the better part of the year to get around to sending out gifts, but I had resolved that I wanted to send handmade gifts and I also struggled to decide exactly what would make a nice gift for some of the people I was supposed to be sending to. I have occasionally felt a little guilty for taking so long to get around to doing it, but mostly, unexpectedly, I have enjoyed taking my time over this. I’ve found myself thinking about my recipients a lot over the last 9 months, wondering about their lives, their challenges and what I can do or send that will make them smile. I wonder if they have sensed it at all.
Open wide zippered pouch - free pattern from Noodlehead
The most unexpected thing has been how much I have enjoyed the whole process. It has been fun creating these things and wrapping them up - Imagining the surprise when the parcels arrive and hoping that they will brighten someone's day. I can’t help thinking that I may have gained more from this experience than the people to whom I am sending gifts, although I hope they will disagree!
I’m going to try to keep on paying it forward, to think about ways I can incorporate random (or not so random) acts of kindness into my everyday, I’m totally hooked on feeling like one of santa’s elves! Do you have any ways that you like to pay it forward or favourite random acts of kindness?
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