Helping others.

I might be odd.  I might be very odd.  I find it an honor to help other people.  I like it when I get called upon to help.  I have learned a valuable lesson in helping other people.  It has taught me how to ask for help myself.  

Someone once said to me, "do you know how good you feel when you get a chance to help someone else?", and I pondered this question.  It does feel good.  Granted, there are times when we may not be overly excited about what we're asked to do -- but we are given the option either to do, or not to do.  This is our prerogative.  I have in the last year, tried diligently to answer with a resounding 'yes!,' when asked, if I can at all possible do what is asked of me.  I cannot say that I have always received what my ego thought it should, but I have also been working on my ego.  I have been trying to be an observer of it's thoughts, as if it is a separate entity from my other thoughts.  I've been singling it out.  I now know it's voice.  My ego is selfish - and I cannot say that I like it's choice of thought process much.  This is a unique way to observe oneself however.  I believe it is the root of our internal drive in life, survival, and need - but is not altruistic in nature.  I persevere to be an altruistic individual.  If I desire for my fellow man to be available and active in my life, then I must possess the same attributes.  It all boils down to the Golden Rule.  Of which I am a believer.  Some will call me simple, but I do not mind.  

Today, I took my neighbor to college.  I was not particularly happy with her - she woke me at 1:00 in the morning, dropping something overhead.  She has been having relationship problems and there has been a bit of fighting.  I have been concerned for her - and at times perturbed at the noise level.  However, this does not change her circumstance.  She has no car, and it trying to finish her degree.  My solution is to tell her that the noise is disturbing - honesty is alway best, even when it is uncomfortable.  But I digress...

In this world... we have gotten away from our fellow man.  We stick our heads in our phones, our pads, our cars, and pretend that there isn't someone standing next to us.  A live, feeling, living being.  We walk past people with no home, living in a cardboard box.  We have anesthesia in our veins.  Because we have no answers, we have no concern or at least this is how it seems.  Homeless people are insane, that is what most folks believe - and we separate ourselves from what we do not understand.  We distance ourselves from the pain of life.  Pain is uncomfortable and we have become a world of instant gratification and comfort.  AT all cost.  If life could be one big Mc Donald's  I think the world would be amazed at how many folks would show up... We have become fat and lazy mentally and physically.  We do not challenge ourselves - and neither does anyone else.  The rich are our heroes and we all want to be like them.  Murders are fascinating.  I have to say that I am guilty of that.  I am challenged by their minds.  Then we wonder why our country is going where it seems to be going?  None of what I concert is new news.  It is just for me heart felt.  It saddens me. 

My tiny solution, in my tiny world, is to help those I can.  I know in my small piece of the universe, I'm making a contribution with my volunteering and with the things that I do.  If someone reads this and is so moved, then I've precipitated thought.  It only takes thought - and one small act of kindness.  If every person would do one thing a day - to make another persons burden lighter - we could all believe in each other again.  Some people have lost hope entirely.  We never know when we cross this kind of individual's path.  Do you want to be the person that looked them in the eye and gave them hope?  Or just another that passed them by as if they did not exist?  I do not want to be.  Despite that my ego tells me that it's all about me.  It is not.  Gravity holds us down, and we hold each other together.  It is not about our jobs, or our cars, or our houses.  It is about us.  And love.  Simple and trite to some but try life without any.  It will change your perspective.  Dramatically.  We take those that we love for granted, everyday. 

I say these things as a single woman, with a few friends and a mother in a nursing home.  I am alone much in this world.  I've learned to adapt.  Perhaps this is why I find helping others so life giving.  I was richly blessed today.  So much that all of the above came out of my mind.  She gave me gifts, and money - but I did not want it.  I want her friendship.  This is what I'm lacking in my life.  I'm lacking humans.  I love humans and all of the oddities.  Big ones, little ones, short ones and tall ones.  I like helping others.   To help those in need.  It just simply does a body good.