When good is better than great…

A couple of days ago I heard the story of a volunteer firefighter. He lived in a town where there were regular firefighters, but if the emergency required extra manpower the volunteers were called out. He wanted to serve his community, but he also had dreams of rushing into a massive blaze and saving a life. He dreamed of being heroic in the eyes of his family and his community.

One night, his pager went off and he rushed to the scene of a huge house fire, flames shooting from the windows of the second story. Here, he thought, was his chance to do something great!

The homeowner was already outside, watching the disaster unfold, distraught because her little dog was trapped inside. This was it – he would save the dog! But…no…another volunteer firefighter was sent inside to rescue the dog. He was sent in to retrieve a pair of shoes for the barefoot homeowner who was standing in the cold.

He did go in and bring out shoes, but when he gave them to the woman, she was rejoicing over her saved pet and didn’t seem to react when he offered her the shoes to make her more comfortable in the cold. He went home disappointed, deflated because he felt his contribution was insignificant.

Days later, a letter came to the fire department thanking the firefighters for their hard work and for saving her pet. The letter went on to offer special thanks to the firefighter who had brought her shoes to wear in the cold. It was a gesture that had touched her deeply and she was overwhelmed with gratitude for that act of thoughtfulness.

The volunteer firefighter learned a valuable lesson. Never overlook the opportunity to do something good because you are waiting to do something great. Great things only come along rarely, while there are opportunities to do good things many times every day.

I cannot get his words out of my mind.

Never overlook the opportunity to do something good because you are waiting to do something great.

Those words keep coming back to me. It is because there is a deep and wonderful lesson in those words, but not just for me.

Each one of us has the opportunity every single day to do something good. Most often, I think, they are small things, spare change dropped in the Salvation Army Christmas kettle, paying for someone else’s coffee in the drive-thru, or volunteering to shovel driveways for senior citizens. Maybe it is something as small as a smile and a wish to “have a good day”. Maybe your ‘good thing’ is just having a cup of tea ready for your partner when they get home from work.

Do you remember Aesop’s Fables? There was one story called the Crow and the Pitcher. The crow was very thirsty and there was a pitcher with some water in the bottom. The crow couldn’t reach the water and knew that if he tipped the pitcher over the water would soak into the ground before he could drink it. He dropped stones, one by one, into the pitcher until it raised the level of the water to where he could reach it and sip up a drink. The moral was necessity is the mother of creativity, but I think it can have a different meaning.

Maybe we and our small deeds of goodness are the stones. The crow is our neighbour, our friend, or even a stranger in need. We drop our stones into the pitcher until the one in need is restored, renewed, maybe even rescued. Some days one stone, one act of goodness, is all it might take, other days and for other people (maybe even for an entire community) it may take many stones to create the change that is needed.

But I do know one thing. It has to start with one – one stone, one act, one person willing to listen to their heart and do something.

This week I was able to do a good thing, I added a stone to a pitcher. If I had been acting alone it would have stayed just that, a good thing. But I was part of a group of local women, 180 in total, who each did a good thing which when added together accomplished a great thing!

180 women, each donating $100, and choosing a local charity to receive the donations. Our combined donations (individually good) will make a tremendous difference in our community (combined to be great). Being part of a local chapter of 100 Women Who Care is teaching me about the power of connection. It is an opportunity to offer a good deed and turn it into a great deed.

The truth is that the giver is not necessarily the best one to measure the impact of a good deed. That right belongs to the one on the receiving end. The firefighter thought his offering of shoes was of no importance, but the woman who received them didn’t feel that way.

Don’t underestimate the power of a good deed and don’t overlook the opportunity to do something good because you are waiting to do something great.

You can watch the firefighter’s TED talk here (it’s only 4 ½ minutes long): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAQfzHBpRsc

You can check out the origins of the 100 Women Who Care movement here: http://www.100whocarealliance.org/about-us/history/