This is the final week in the series of our Theme: “Paying Forward – Giving Back”. Many of us are familiar with the 2000 movie, “Pay It Forward”, but how many of us are aware this concept goes back way before that. In ancient Athens in 317 BC a play entitled “Dyskolus” (translated as The Grouch) was based on this philosophy.
Benjamin Franklin in 1784 wrote: “I do not pretend to give such a deed, I only lend it to you. When you meet another in similar distress you must pay me by lending this sum to him, enjoining him to discharge the debt in like operation when he shall be able. I hope it may thus go through many hands. This is a trick of mind for doing a deal of good with a little money.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “Compensation wrote: “In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent to cent to somebody”
Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book, Garden of Delight wrote: “You don’t pay love back, you pay it forward.” I commend you to pay the love that you are made from and of out to others without nary a regard for compensation back to yourself. But recognize the wholeness and unity of Life is always supporting Itself. Be a part of that cycle. Give, pressed down and flowing over and be a positive force in the nature of Life.
Say with me: “I am part of the ever evolving cycle of Life that is always giving of Itself without regard for repayment. I give what I have, pressed down and flowing over. It is in the giving that I do receive. I am ever so grateful. And it is so.”
