What do I have to give?

With multiple disabilities  I need assistance with so many daily tasks. As I am unable to work full time I am on a government benefit. Couple with the additional needs, such as wheelchairs, medical safety alert, medications and paying for assistance. Many ask what I have to give. I see Pay It Forward  as an attitude.  A deliberate choice we make when we walk out the door each day to serve others or in my case my carers walk in the door.  Yep! Buying a stranger a cup of coffee is a neat idea, but PIF or giving doesn’t need to involve money. Another term you can use is an act of serve or voluntary work.

I have one thing that being single and not being able to work.  Would you want someone who has uncontrollable seizures working for you?  Where my body fails, my mind takes over and a very creative mind at that! I process things that money can’t buy and gift and talents that many don’t.

A lot of my time is given to sharing knowledge. Someone else gets the credit and even paid for my research big deal! If you really want to Pay It Forward get over yourself and do it quickly.  The way I see it is knowledge is mind the ideas are not.

During the 12 Gifts of Christmas some ways I pay It Forward was to write testimorals for companies I brought products for.

An attitude of thanks goes along way. I have a take-away shop at the end of my street. Exit assistance is no trouble. Tell the young staff they ROCK said more than thank you. Sometimes Pay It Forward is about using generational lingo or dialect. That takes listing skills and time. Believe me  people noticed these things is a society that is time poor.

Go back to basics – Grandma’s baking, write letters, make phone calls rather than text. (OK I’m a text hater!) mending, ironing, wash cars, often to return trolleys. They don’t need to be elderly, disabled or have kids hanging off them. Random acts of kindness is helping anyone when opportunity presents. You don’t know if the well dressed person is late for a flight or come from a funeral. Don’t judge Pay It Forward to everyone.

Give up your seat especially if you got the best one! If you got a window seat, offer it to a child who can look out the window in awe. By the way getting to enjoy their sense of joy is their free gift to you.

Hand make  cards and gifts (don’t buy handmade – do it yourself! If you cheat your cheating yourself) OK when you have CP your friends can tell and the impact is always greater but I bet your friends and appreciate the time and effort you put in too.

Write Letters – do you know there’s elderly people in nursing homes that never got a visit, a present or even a card over Christmas signing up to write to the forgotten ones international is one of my  favourite gifts I gave that and writing to one of my carers who had a pretty tough year.

Adopt a grand-parent, niece or nephew - with family breakdowns there’s kids growing up without father figures and single people like me who don’t grandkids. (I am very blessed that my nieces and nephews visit.)  or you could baby sit a friends children so they can have a date night.(remember to charge it to the Pay It Forward account. `    

         

Donate blood – in Australia you don’t get paid to donate blood, blood products or organs.

I also donate online – a great charity is I give a buck!  You can give as little as a $1 to a specific child’s need. For example bed rails. If an items costs $2,451 then 2451 give $1 the special need is able to be purchase. That’s a lot less than a cup of coffee. 

My thoughts on 'power of love'

An extract from my It Take's On Blog 


I am a firm believer the key to bring about positive world change is all in the Power of Unconditional Love. Unfortunately very few people in the world get to experience unconditional love. To many the concept of 'love' is foreign and when people experience love of any kind for the first time it van be completely overwhelming for many, so I am wanting members to remember that when they're out and about sharing the humane touch of love and random acts of kindness. 

In the West our society is so consumed with dare I say it consumerism and having the biggest and the best car, house, boat, holiday and latest gadgets, that we are working longer hours, and thus spending more time away from family home than ever before.  We're become so consumed by our need to accumulate objects, success and status that we have forgotten what is at the core of our humane existence and that is relationships. 

. . . "We'll have to catch up soon." How many people have you said that too in the past year and honestly meant at the time and it hasn't happened. Can I say, please make time to make it happen! Forget about saving the world form itself for a moment, take out your 2012 diaries and write a list of all the people who have promise to catch-up with in the last year and haven't, now look at next weeks dates, cause changes are this weeks is already way too full and make a time to sit down with the phone and call the people on your list to make a time in the next month to catch-up. If your really that busy, do the grocery shopping together! Why? Because we can never get back time! 

Christmas 2010 I said to a friend 'we'll have to catch-up soon.' and we never did . . . I attended her memorial service instead. Is it really worth taking on that extra work contract. Or are you better off getting home an extra hour early at night to tuck the kids into bed.  

I don't want you spending time on It Takes One activities if the most important people in your life aren't seeing you enough. If that's the case, then maybe your "world change" needs to start in your own home. We can't model something if we're not doing it ourselves.

One of the greatest threats in our modern society is to our families and our children, when relationships breakdown then the fallout is devastating and the effects can last generations. If you've invested time into creating a family then one of the greatest gifts you'll give to society is to love and nurture your family. Family breakdowns so society millions and flow on down throw the generations. If we weren't spending money on child support, family counselling, legal aid, family courts, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, metal illness, graffiti, vandalism, break and entering, foster care, homeless shelters, emergency treatments from drug overdoses, brawls and juvenile detention centres, we'd have a lot more money to spend on world aid. 

Generational abuse and dysfunctional families and the subsequence substance abuse and criminal behaviour and tell tale signs that people have never experience the unconditional love they were designed to live with.  I hasn't a guess that 95% of the world's poverty  is due to our hunger for wealth and power. Man's greed is born out of self survival rather than our ability to love. I you want to learn to love start giving to those who have nothing to give in return and I'm not talking about money. Go visit a nursing home or a jail and you'll soon workout how to help. Some times all people need is those relationships and company. 

Hope you find time to Share The Love today!      

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