Coming Down the Mountain

I was hiking yesterday.  It was a perfect day to be out – sunny, just a little breeze, kind of cold, but after you got moving, it was fine.  The trail I was on was all very uphill to its finish (about 1.5 miles).  On my way back down toward the car, I came upon two people who were very slowly making their way down the rocky hill.  The man had his arm around the shoulder of the woman who seemed to be helping him take small steps down the trail.

As I watched I noticed the man was severely limping.  I asked him if he was hurt.  He said yes.  He had fallen on the trail and had badly twisted his ankle.  I asked to help and grabbed onto him so he could lean heavily on me as we made our way.  His name was Eduardo and he was visiting the area from Massachusetts.  He was there with his girlfriend and was embarrassed to admit that he actually had been “dancing” down the hill when he slipped and fell. 

We got to know one another a little better as we slowly worked down the hill about a third of a mile toward the parking lot.  When we got there, we really took a look at Eduardo’s ankle.  While probably not broken, it was really swollen.   I drove a short distance to the park lodge and got a bag of ice from the restaurant and returned to the couple who stayed there in the parking lot.  At that point Eduardo reached into his pocket and asked if he could pay me for the ice.  I told him the ice was free, but there was something that he might be able to do.

I asked Eduardo if he had seen the movie “Pay It Forward.”  He said he had and really liked it-he remembered the little boy in the movie and what he had done.  His girlfriend (I wish I had remembered her name) had seen the movie and thought it inspiring too.  I explained that the company I worked for was sponsoring a Pay-It-Forward initiative and told him how I was trying to help three people or maybe more.  In some cases the help may be financial, but it didn’t have to be like that.  I than asked that he consider doing the same as a way of passing on what I was given the chance to do for him.  Both enthusiastically said they would.  I left the couple as they were getting ready to leave.  I won’t forget the smiles of both of these people.

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