Several years ago I overheard two young women who were reading a magazine article on 10 tips for a happier life ask each other about one of the tips on the list:

‘Help someone you don’t know, who you will never see again.’

“Why would anyone want to do that?” they asked each other. They truly could not comprehend how that could bring them any kind of happiness. (This conversation is actually my main reason for starting Look To The Stars, as I knew that if Madonna had walked in at that moment and explained how helping others made her feel, they would have become instant philanthropists. But I digress…)

I recently read about a deer that wandered into a pet store in Rossford, Ohio. The deer was injured, and somehow managed to make it into a PetSmart, where it lay bleeding on the floor. The animal calmly allowed the shop’s veterinary staff to stitch up the wound and administer an antibiotic shot, then ran out of the shop and back into the wild.

Naturally, one wonders how the deer happened to choose a shop with a veterinary staff, but what sticks with me from the story is how the vet and assisting shop employees must have felt afterwards. Can you imagine their joy at helping that deer? Imagine if you could do something like this every day, even on a small scale.

The deer didn’t pay them, and didn’t even say thank you. They will never get anything back from the deer. But they helped it anyway, and now, when they walk past the spot where they saved the life of that wild animal, they will remember that joy. And they will not be the only ones. Many of the people who go into that shop will feel some of that joy, as well. I can feel that joy even from here, on the other side of the world.

This unusual act of helping the needy has brought an immeasurable amount of love and awe to people all around the world.

So, tell me now, why shouldn’t you help?