A Deed Done is a Deed Doubled

Good deeds are contagious. Once infected by the experience of giving or receiving a good deed, one will desire to spread its symptoms: a heart which smiles for the warmth it feels, a soul which hums tunes of happiness and a mind at peace with the world. Doing a good deed - it's a feeling no money can buy. It sure beats the taste of ice cream on a Sunday.

I'm brought back to a time when I did something special for a friend. This is when I came to understand the true meaning behind, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." It was the year 2020. The year which came with boastful lips and a lying tongue. For while many thought that peace, pleasure and profits would be at an all-time high, many more came to realize that it was a time of protest, pain and plummeting income. Something else was spreading - the vicious, contiguous virus called COVID-19.

A pandemic reared its ugly head and many thought good deeds were dead. I believe that the best good deed is the one that is done, not the one that is hoped for. For in doing, we are sowing seeds of good deeds that will grow into massive trees providing shade for those who are in the pelting, hot sun of struggle. The fruit of those trees is more good deeds, enough to end the famine of kindness.

A good dead done can be counted as two. Do you know the feeling you get when it's buy one get one free (BOGO)? I like to think of a good deed as such. If you receive one give one (ROGO? - now that's a thought). A good deed done is two good deeds received, for in carrying out a kind act, we entrust others to do the same. In the midst of diminishing hope and fear-filled minds (as I myself was working hard to keep my business afloat), I used every opportunity I got to do something right that could bring light to a world that seemed wrong in its direction and so dark at the time.

My friend had given me a call which I had missed. Normally it takes a while for me to return a call but something in my gut told me he needed help and so I returned his call promptly. I could hear from the shakiness in his voice, that he was scared. His only vehicle and only means to get to work had broken down. He was low on cash and therefore couldn't get it fixed. He needed a way to get to work so that he could provide for his stay-at-home girlfriend and their baby. Worry wiggled its way into his explanation. I knew his back was against the wall.

I had been between a rock and a hard place too many times to not be of any help. I remembered not too long ago that I was in his same position and had no one to help me. I wasn't going to be bitter, I was going to do better. This was my chance to give something more valuable than money...hope. A pocket full of hope can help anyone cope, right? Besides, I had no money to give at the time. What I did have, however, was an extra vehicle. It was a cargo van I had inherited from my father who passed away the year prior. It came to me at a time when I really needed a vehicle and so I wanted to return the good deed of my father. I offered to loan him the van until he could get his vehicle up and running again. See how my father's good deed turned into two?

He didn't express it to me then over the phone, but face to face he told me of his indebted gratitude. To that, I said, "Don't pay me back, pay it forward." Plant a good deed and remember... ROGO! (Receive One Give One).