Give something to someone who needs it more than you

I have a confession: I am a collector. Now some may call my habit of collecting various memorabilia ‘hoarding’, however I protest. I am a collector and I am a meticulous one at that.

This fact was painstaking obvious during the recent relocation to our new farm, which not only involved moving 350 plus animals but also my 50 odd years of collecting and its associated umpteen boxes of ‘stuff’!

I have just about every diary I have ever written in, every pay slip ever received, stamps from way before I was born, (my specialty was Australian pre-decimal and Papua New Guinean)- sadly the advent of a not for profit sanctuary for rescued farmed animals put paid to buying any more stamps. I have a wonderful collection of matchbooks (little match boxes from all sorts of places), a tie collection, a flag collection, countless horse magazines and newspaper clippings.

And I must confess, I have a collection of pig tusks but please don’t panic as they all have been ethically removed from our boy piggies in the name of good animal husbandry. I am really not sure how that collection started but I don’t have the heart to end it or to throw the tusks disrespectfully away.

Oh and books! Don’t start me on books! I have made it my personal mission for my library to be called home by just about every book relating to farm animals, their health, welfare and behavior, along with just about every animal rights book published. I cannot pass a second hand bookstore or jumble sale, least a bargain pass me by. And an avid currency watcher I have become, waiting to pounce when the Australian Dollar is good against the ‘green back’ and then to amazon.com I jump.

Oh and there is my collection of piggy treasures – made up of pig statues, trinkets and all sorts of things porcine. There’s horse show ribbons, prize cards and trophies, school reports and birthday greeting cards. And there’s collector cards- supermarkets love me for whenever they bring out an animal card series I am there! Their clever marketing ploy is most certainly not lost on me.

A recent card promotion by a major supermarket chain saw me rapidly racking up the sales to get more cards before the promotion ended. For every $5 spent one card was earned.

Can you imagine my delight when after having paid for my purchases and collecting my cards the dear sweet lady behind me called out for me to wait as she requested her cards be passed to me because she had no need for them? Such a simple selfless gesture of giving something to someone who appreciated it more really made my day.

I guess it is for this reason I loooooove opportunity shops. What countless opportunities I have found! And not to let the spirit of paying it forward pass, several boxes of my treasured trophies have now found their way to a local pony club.

I find in such experiences, a wonderful sense of community that reminds one how easy it is to enrich the lives of others. So next time you are at a loss of just what to do, perhaps give something to someone who may need it more than you. And if you’re not sure what give – your kindness is a great place to start.