Pay It Forward

It´s been a long time since my last Blog on here – I´ve really missed you, my dear E-Diary!

Last week was the International Books FlashMob day organised by the fantastic PIF – Pay It Forward (http://www.pifexperience.org/).

Did you ever see the movie? Beautiful, heart-warming, wasn´t it? If you didn´t, I strongly recommend that you do! (just maybe not a Saturday night kind of movie!)

Anyway, the Books FlashMob day was taking place in about 60 countries was about doing a good selfless deed for a complete stranger, by giving away one of your favourite books, one that made a big difference for you in your life. Like all the other PIF actions, it was about restoring human faith in that we´re all basically good and that there are so many of us that care, that want to do good, that are prepared to “sacrifice” their time (an hour at least!), a  cherished possession (book in this case) and a little bit of “nerve” to approach strangers to give them this gift (there are flyers that are to be inserted into the middle of the book which explain the PIF and that particular action so that later on the said strangers understand what “happened to them”).

This turned out to be a more emotional event for me than I´d “planned” – on one hand, there were 2 slightly sad and disappointing facts – one is that here in Marbella, there were just 5 of us. (vs thousands in more established places like London´s Trafalgar square). Yes, 5. That includes me, the lovely Silvia Benedetta (the organiser of the Marbella event), her gorgeous daughter Maya who was our “official photographer” and 2 other ladies that were up for this great event.

Yes, 5 of us. Out of many, many, many that had originally confirmed their assistance and most of whom never found the time to advise that they wouldn´t be able to make it in the end.
(Below Silvia, Anne & myself "in action" - the FlashMob effect of "everyone suddenly sitting down to read a chapter of their book before giving it away looks slightly more errr "awkward" with less than 50 participants! Heck, with less than 10!)

If it was sad for me, you can only imagine how Silvia felt after 3 months of organising and promoting the event to hundreds of her good friends and contacts.  Now at this point, I have to give it some context – Silvia single-handedly takes care of her 5 kids -3 year old to 13 year old and works all hours imaginable. Needless to say, there´s absolutely no profit or income to be made out of this event (which is, of course, absolutely free!), so if you take away nothing else from this Blog, then it should be

“Where there´s a will, there is a Way.

And if there isn´t, we´ll Make one!”

So, let´s think again about our usual excuses of being too busy, having a baby or 2 to look after, having a busy job etc.

Make a way she did, and so despite of it being “just” the 5 of us, we went ahead and made the Marbella event happen.

The positive to make out of that negative is that it really doesn´t matter who DIDN´T turn up. We did. Instead of feeling bad of it being “just us”, it was about feeling good to be there (have to admit that it did take a little while to “re-focus” our thoughts and conversation in that way!)

The 2^nd sad thing happened when it came to actually giving away my 2 books. Now, to place some more context, yet without wanting to come across as arrogant or anything, I´d like to think of my appearance as one inspiring some trust, if nothing else.

So, there was me, in my best casual afternoon glad rags (including my brand new cute turquoise sandals, nonetheless! J) in the middle of a busy shopping centre with 2 copies of respectable enough books, smiling at strangers (mostly 40+ ladies of different nationalities), whilst extending the book and saying “Could I please give this as a present to you, just enjoy it, no strings, explanation is inside the leaflet here in the book”.

I think I would have got better treatment if I were actually asking for something, instead of giving it away. This apparently would raise less suspicion!! 

But, finally, and several (approximately 10!!) rejections later, I was able to bestow my gifts upon these fellow good human beings. Result!

The positivity out this? That I got to practice my anti-rejection self-confidence tricks, that I did find some trusting people who were open-minded enough to accept the books, that I felt good about it, that maybe a few of those that did reject me (or would have had they been there), will read this Blog and next time will have a little more faith in the goodness of some actions.

All in all, a great day, so happy to have been part of it! (and to think that I so nearly missed it!!)

Many thanks to the wonderful Silvia and Maya, also to our 2 other fellow "FlashMobers", to all those that nearly came, to all those that rejected us, to all those that didn´t. To PIF for their tireless efforts in promoting this brilliant concept.  

Please join and enjoy PIF and their future events and actions!

In  the meantime, you know what to do with the lemons that life throws you sometimes, don´t you? (a hint – you´ll need some rum, sugar, hierbabuena, soda and ice to throw in the mix too!)

Here´s also an extract from PIF Flashmob event website:

"Never, ever, ever under estimate the power and might of the whisperings of your heart. Sometimes, what the heart says may sound crazy,  but it never argues. It just whispers once, quietly (but loudly) and then your head kicks in. Your head argues and shouts, rationalises and justifies – yet the heart ! The heart just whispers once and makes you feel alive. Our hearts shared this “little idea” with is and our heads told us “we were crazy.” Thank goodness that for once, we listened to our hearts ! Because this was a big one, and the head won before. This time, the heart showed that it is the “little things” that come from the heart that have the most impact on the world and that is why WE choose to Pay It Forward".