The cheeseburger and the turtle

​I have two daughters and like all parents, I am immensely proud of them both.  In this blog entry, I would like to share a story about my eldest daughter, Lucy, who is 16 years old.

A few months ago, Lucy went to see a band in London with a group of friends and afterwards, on their way home, they decided to grab a burger as they were all feeling a bit peckish.  Just outside the burger place, a homeless man was standing begging and Lucy asked him if she could get him something to eat and brought back a cheeseburger for him.  The man was very grateful and he thanked Lucy ‘from the bottom of his heart’.  When Lucy told me about this the next day, she expressed how sad it was that some people have to beg for food and she also said how nice it had felt to be able to give someone something that they were so grateful for.

This weekend, Lucy went to Camden Market in London and her and her friends were just walking around, browsing and taking in the atmosphere.  Lucy walked past a stall where a man was selling little turtles with nodding heads, just like the dogs you see in the back window of cars sometimes.  Lucy stopped as she loved the way these little ornaments looked and the man told her that he had made them all himself.  She was telling him how impressed she was that he had made them and he offered to sell one of the turtles to her for a 'special price' of £2.  Lucy told him that she had to save her money this time but that she was grateful for the special price he had offered her.

She walked away, and next thing, the man from the stall was tapping her on her shoulder and handed her one of the little turtle that he had made and told her that it was a present for her.  Lucy burst into tears as she was so touched by this lovely and generous gesture.  She ran back after the man and tried to give him some money for it, but the man insisted with a big smile on his face, that it was a present from him to her.

I believe that everything and everyone is connected and that the more we give out, the more we get back.  There is a natural order in life which means every action will set off a set of events that will someday return back to us.  Who would have thought that Lucy’s gift of a cheeseburger would a couple of months later turn into a little hand-made turtle with a nodding head?  There is probably not many more satisfying feelings than knowing that you have made another person happy and to experience those emotions are really the reason why we are here.

At these times of giving, enjoy the great feeling of making someone happy by offering an unconditional gift, whatever that may be.  Who knows what impact it could have on your future!