Paying For Kindness

As Opal entered my property, Norman, one of my neighbors, followed her with a clear plastic bag of cherries. Opal stopped and suggested, “I can give them to her for you.”

“Ok,” Norman said, handing her the bag of red cherries.

Inside, Opal said as she entered, handing the bag of cherries to me, “Norman says to give you this.”

Glancing through the window, I said, “I have to pay him for it.”

“What!” Opal cried out.

Swaying my head from left to right, I asked sarcastically, walking to my bag on the sofa and taking money out, “What? You thought he was giving it to me for free?”

Opal sat on the sofa and then said, “For four years, he has lived off your breadfruit tree, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When it’s mango season, he gets more mangoes than everyone in the community. It’s the same for your sweetsops. He never paid you. So why are you paying him?”

“He sold me his fruits,” I revealed, shrugging my shoulders and counting the money to pay him.

Opal grabbed the money from me, shoved it in her jeans’ back pocket, and marched outside. Then she demanded, “What are you waiting for?”

“She always gives me something for my cherries,” he said.

“But I have been here many times when she gave you three different fruits from her tree, and you never paid her!” Opal protests.

“So what?” he asked.

“She gave you kindness by sharing her fruits with you. So instead of returning the kindness you took, you are selling her yours?”

“I never asked her for money,” he said in protest.

“But you took it! You could have said no!”

“Who do you know that refuses free money?”

“A kind heart!” Opal hits him with. “A heart who appreciates and respects the generosity they take. A heart who knows how to reciprocate and grow kindness!”

He hissed his teeth and walked out of the yard.

Opal returned my money, demanding, “Stop buying kindness from the people you give it to. You don’t sell your fruits. You share it with everyone in your community. Don’t pay them when they are returning the kindness!”

“Sorry, but that’s how it is with many of them,” I inform her.

“You mean he isn’t the only one you are buying kindness from?”

“I don’t see it as buying kindness,” I disclosed.

“How do you see it?” Opal questioned.

Sighing, I explain, “That’s how it is in my world. I give it for free. They take, and I pay for what they offered.”

“That’s a world you create when you decide to pay for kindness! And you are comfortable with that?”

“I enjoy giving, but I agree with you. I don’t charge them for the service/kindness I give. I shouldn’t pay them if they are returning the kindness.”

“You gotta stop doing that,” she suggested.

“Look at it this way. They tell me something about themselves by taking the money I offered,” I elaborate.

“And what is that?”

“They don’t have a kind heart,” I revealed. “Humans tell us a lot about themselves, unaware.”

Opal nodded in clear understanding, saying, “I see where you are coming from, but I still don’t like it. You gotta stop it, though!”

“Then I will test all of them next time and see what happens,” I assure her.

I have neighbors to whom I have freely given mangoes and breadfruits for many years. I love Grape-Cranberry and Cherry juice. They have the trees on their property and sell me their fruits. So yes, I, too, pay for kindness.

Have you ever given kindness to anyone, and when they return it, you reward them for it, and they take it?

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

Kind hearts know the value of generosity and how to grow it, allowing it to flourish and spread, touching everyone.

For 2025, let's start giving Kindness freely!

Thank you fro reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.