I have had one of those moments where I can’t help but smile at what life has shown me in the most creative of ways.

It all started with a free Bounty chocolate bar. I bought one from the supermarket, and on the wrapper it said ‘1 in 6’ wins a free bar. To be honest I didn’t even really pay attention to the wrapper until after I had opened the bar. When I bought the chocolate initially, all I had cared about was that I felt like eating a Bounty. When I realised I had won another bar, I was kinda like, “Cool! Free bar! What a bonus!”

I held onto the wrapper, but didn’t redeem it for a while as I couldn’t be bothered finding somewhere that would happily give me the bar I had won. I felt kinda happy when I thought about it, but it almost became annoying knowing it was there waiting to be redeemed. In all honesty I nearly threw it out thinking perhaps it wasn’t worth the hassle.

Almost 🙂

Anyway, I finally built up the courage to ask the lady at Coles whether they would do it. She said they would, so I swapped them my Bounty wrapper for a free bar. When I got my new bar, I was actually kinda hoping that I hadn’t won another one. Even though I knew that in finding a winning wrapper the prize was mine, there was something almost uncomfortable about asking someone to give you something for ‘free’-even though I had won it and had every right to ask for it. It’s uncomfortable too though, to win and not redeem your prize. You know it’s there waiting for you, but you feel unworthy of standing up and taking it. Imagine you won a million dollars on lotto, but just kept the ticket pinned up on your wall at home.

It made me stop and think about it more deeply. Why would I feel so hesitant to claim something that was rightfully mine? And why did I feel like I was cheating someone in doing so, even though I knew it was Cadbury themselves who had already made provision for the free bars? We can all win here. Is it that I am uncomfortable with the idea of not having to pay for something? That I didn’t have to work hard? All I did was buy a chocolate because I felt like it 🙂

It made me sad to feel myself hoping that I wouldn’t win another free bar! I won two more free Bounty’s after that first one, so in total I had 4 Bounty’s and only paid for 1! Today when I redeemed my last one I found that I hadn’t won and actually felt relieved. I stopped myself for a second.. “No way! I want to be delighted in winning free bars!”

I feel like it is the same with life. Sometimes it seems we find it so hard to believe that we could receive anything simply by following our hearts and doing stuff just because we feel like it and it brings us joy. We worry that other people will feel ripped off. How can something so naturally flowing and wonderful come to me without a moment of hard work? And if it does, won’t that make other people feel bad?

Well, you know what, that’s not for us to worry about 🙂 Life is all about free gifts, and I for one, am going to delight myself in redeeming my Free Bounty!