Do you remember
those commercials where one person would do something nice for someone else and
then that person would do something nice for another, so on and so on. I always
thought it was a cool commercial and illustrated the intent of kindness and the
power it has.
A few months ago, I
visited my local Starbucks. It was midday and I was in need of refueling. I
ordered my usual Toffee Nut Latte via the drive thru and waited in line for my
turn. There were three cars in front of me and two cars behind. When I pulled
up to the window, phone in hand (I use the nifty Starbucks App), the attendant
greeted me with a smile and stated my bill had already been taken care of by
the car in front of me.
I was in shock. Wow,
I had heard about stuff like this happening. I actually thought it was an urban
legend. To my surprise it is not. After reattaching my jaw to my face I asked,
why? The attendant laughed, she was obviously enjoying the reaction. She said
it has started about half an hour ago. One person started the chain by offering
to purchase the coffee for the people in the car behind them and it continued
from there.
I shook my head with
a huge grin and I said, “well let’s keep it going, shall we?”. Handing her my
phone I paid for the coffee order in the car behind me.
It is a rainy
morning here in Texas and I have lofty writing goals for the day. After
debating about whether or not to go to the grocery store to buy coffee creamer
or to just make a beeline to Starbucks I decided to do both. After stopping at
the grocery store-- specifically for my daughter, who like her mother, has
coffee with her cream—I drove across the parking lot to the Starbucks
drive-thru. Ordering my Toffee Nut Latte I noticed my Starbucks card had just
refilled. The thought hit me and I couldn’t resist—selfishly hoping for good
karma—when I got to the window there were four cars behind me. I looked at the
couple in the car behind me. They looked like they’d had a long morning so I
went for it.
I told the attendant
I would like to take care of the couples order behind me. The attendant, a
young adult of about eighteen or nineteen smiled broadly “It will be my
pleasure to assist you with that.” He told me their total and scanned my phone.
“I will say thank you for the car behind you.”
I asked him to tell them
to have an awesome Sunday. He nodded and told me to have a terrific day. I
pulled out of the drive through forcing myself not to look back. The bubbling
of pure joy, and giggling elation was overwhelming. I haven’t experience such a
natural pure high in years!
In reading this I
hope you are inspired to do the same for someone sometime in the near future. I
would LOVE to hear about you have done. I think back to how I felt when it was
done for me, and now I have started the chain and passed it on.
It is my sincere
hope that everyone who receives a free coffee is inspired to have an awesome
day!
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