Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them
Dalai Lama
Sometimes we all need some help.
I was thinking about this today as I was down in my laundry room, trying to reach into the laundry chute to pull out an errant sock. In the end, I had to use a stool.
I always have to use a stool.
At 5'2", so much is out of reach for me.
In my kitchen, my best friend is not my kitchen-aid mixer or my cookbooks; it is my small red stool that enables me to reach everything.
When you are small, you learn quickly to get over the ego and recognize you are going to need help sometimes: to reach the high shelf at the grocery store, climb up onto things, see the view.
And yet, so often in the rest of our lives we are afraid to ask for help.
Some of this is because we are private, pioneering sorts of personalities who do not (or have convinced ourselves we do not) need help; we'll go it alone thank you very much.
Some of this is because we are embarrassed because we don't know an answer, think we are the only ones with the problem, think people will think we are stupid or odd or weak if we ask for help.
As I get older, I realize more and more that I need all kinds of boosts from all kinds of people. And while at times I still feel shy to ask for those boots, for that help, I almost always feel better for having done so.
Even if my request does not end in the result I'd hoped for, I am usually not unhappy that I made the ask.
And just as I am appreciating all of the boosts I have been given, I am trying hard to give them to others. When I see things that need commending, I say something right away now. When I hear or read something that I think someone would benefit from knowing about, I share it.
Some of the greatest gifts I have received recently are some random act of kindness or some little boost that has kept me going.
I never know from whence these boosts will come. Sometimes it is a friend sharing something. Other times it's an article I've read, I story I've heard. Each time I think: "Wow - how lucky am I to have heard that/seen that?"
A small thing we do for someone else can mean more to them than we will ever know.
In turn, our request to them may seem big to us, but small to the person we've asked.
All this philosophy from a pink sock in the laundry chute....
Have a great day and stay safe out there!
xoxo wendy
