NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

From time to time each of us feels unappreciated. We realize that we are feeling that those around us don’t recognize or even acknowledge all that we have done for them.

Here we are remembering everyone’s birthday, even our sister and brother in-laws, and then one day we forget one. Suddenly, the fact that we remembered a dozen others, and phoned to remind everyone else as well, is forgotten. It figures. Why are we surprised? We all know that no good deed goes unpunished.

Meanwhile, to add insult to injury, when we tell a close friend or family member that we feel unappreciated, they remind us that we should give freely and not give expecting to get something back. They tell us that we should be happy that we have the capacity and goodwill within us to give. The fact that they are right is even more annoying than the being ‘taken for granted’ we already felt.

Eventually we remember that we have many people in our lives who have been friends for a long time. As a matter of fact, many, even most people we know are usually happy to hear from us too. What we forget when we are disgruntled, is that there are many times when a bunch of people suddenly come through for us.

How could I already be forgetting that, only a little over a week ago I had a Birthday Party, went out for dinner and lunch and was given gifts, including one from a new friend? In fact, I still have several Birthday cards displayed which came from both family members and by mail from several friends, and several other celebrations to come in the near future.

When we are being reasonable, we finally consider that maybe somewhere in our lives, we are actually doing something right. Obviously time to nip the ‘pity party’ in the bud and get back to normal.

It is then that you are able to remember again why waiting an extra two hours for your 10 year old nephew’s rescheduled soccer games hardly matters at all. Besides the Sunburn gives your face much needed colour and Vitamin D. It is so little to give to someone who appreciates you as he does and actually knocked 20 years off of your age in his note on your Birthday Card, just over a week ago.

Besides, you have to be who you are. If you are a Giver, then you give because you want to, and maybe need to. There are worse things to be and the rewards begin, not with someone constantly thanking you, but in the capacity you have to be a better person by giving from the heart to those you care about.