Sometimes it’s hard not to be focused on yourself and your problems.

Work, situations that arise with your kids, your marriage – we all have a lot on our plates.

Every once in awhile, though, something happens – something that fortifies your faith in humanity. Something that makes it clear that it’s not all about you.  Something that reminds you that life is more than just “pulling yourself up by your boot straps.”

I’m talking about doing things for each other purely out of kindness and respect and not expecting anything in return, other than maybe a thank you – or maybe not.

This past week has been a rough one for a variety of reasons and I’ve been a bit scatter-brained. For me, that translates into leaving or misplacing things. It’s nothing new. (My mother-in-law jokes that I’ve spent half my life looking for my car keys or glasses.)

This past week I was filling up my gas tank at a local gas station and absent-mindedly left my wallet on top of my car. I drove off. I didn’t realize until later than evening that my wallet was missing.

I drove back that night. It looked around the gas pumps and talked to the gas station attendant. I even hopped in the dumpster and emptied a few bags after finding out the garbage cans around the gas pumps had recently been emptied. I was convinced that someone had found my wallet, emptied it of cash and credit cards and hurriedly threw it away.

I left frustrated and miserable. “Great,” I said to myself. “That’s all I need.” That night I made a list of everything in my wallet, and started canceling credit cards.

The following morning I got up at 6:30 a.m. and drove back to the gas station. I walked the perimeter. I even drove slowly on both sides of the road on the nearby streets hoping to see something. I came back feeling really down.

But then, at about 9 a.m., my wife called. She said a  gentleman with a neck brace on had stopped by her work and gave her my wallet. Everything was in it. No cash was missing. She took his name and address. I called him that evening to express my thanks.

He told me he was a retired Syracuse cop, and that he had found my wallet the evening before (shortly after I had left) in the middle of the intersection by the gas station. He said he stopped, picked it up and noticed my wife’s business card inside. That’s how he knew where to go.

He said he had just had extensive back surgery, and that he had other medical problems that nearly killed him about two years ago. I talked about a reward, but he waved me off.

“Forget the reward…just do something good for someone else,” he said.

I’ve been thinking about his words all week. I’m determined to grant his request.

Like I said, life’s not all about me.