Because some people are just that nice.

It's been a heckuva two days. The flu showed up suddenly and in full force around 1 am on Sunday morning. Thankfully, it's only been me to feel it so far. I spent twelve hours sick to my stomach, wishing I could sleep but instead sitting on the cold, hard linoleum of the bathroom. Another twelve hours of writhing in bed, suffering miserable joint pain and body aches, fever and chills, exhaustion and dizziness, and I finally managed to get a few good hours' sleep and keep down a bowl of rice. Monday wasn't much better, hubby having gone back to work leaving me with the girls to try to care for. I'm lucky to have such good girls - they did make it easy on me. But oh, man, the flu really is misery at it's finest, like you're pretty sure you're not actually going to die, but you almost kind of just wish you would.

Or maybe not.

But anyway.

I finally sucked it up, forced my way through the dizziness and complete lack of depth perception, and tried to act like a mother again today. I even had the girls ready to go to dance class ten minutes early, therefore affording me enough time for a trip through the Starbucks' drive through. Because I'm convinced that a grande soy latte will cure any and everything that ails you. And when I got to the window? The lady in front of me had paid for my drink. Ha! I got Pay It Forwarded!

Before that, I was seriously re-thinking my decision to leave the house, my children were arguing in the back seat, all I could think about was how badly I wanted either a nap or a cup of coffee (or maybe both), and the guy at the drive-thru told me with a funny, happy little smile that the woman in front of me had paid for my order. How cool is that? I read about the whole "pay it forward" thing on Facebook all the time, even in the news once or twice, but I never really applied it to me. It was a funny sort of feeling - the first thing I thought was "I'm sure someone else deserves this more than I do," almost sort of guilty. But then I decided just to soak up the kindness - it certainly was a good day for it.

So, while I can't say for sure that the Starbucks made me feel any better, that sweet and thoughtful woman in front of me in the drive-thru sure did make my day a million times better.

Have you "paid it forward"? Or have you been on the receiving end of someone else's paying it forward? Do share your stories, I'd love to hear them. I'll definitely be passing along this treat to some unsuspecting soul soon.

"...freely you have received; freely give." Matthew 10:8