I was reminded today that we are here to help each other. My husband re-posted a link on Facebook which has now mysteriously disappeared. Someday I will figure out Facebook. Someday the decision-makers at Facebook will use their powers for good rather than evil, but that’s a post for another day.
If memory serves, the message was something about response. What is our response when we see someone in need? Or when we see sadness in the eyes of a friend? Or even a stranger – like the young girl, weathered by life already, who stands on a corner near our home begging for money.
I’m learning that maybe the important thing about being on this earth is relationship. Our relationship to God, to the earth, and to each other. And the “each other” is what I’m focusing on in this moment. Do I have to have an emotional or biological attachment to someone to be there? To help? Anyone who has ever volunteered at a soup kitchen or cleaned up after a hurricane knows that in being human, in being alive, we all are already attached to each other. And our hands can be given in a friendly handshake, or to lift someone up from a difficult circumstance, or in a gentle touch of support. In that moment, we belong to each other.
So I’ve decided to remember that thing that I used to know deeply. The belief that has somehow been pushed to the background in my search for meaning and purpose. Ironically, it may have been the answer to the question all along. My reason for being here is to be here for others. Tonight the “others” are my boys, playing their version of the Olympics in my office while I’m writing this (complete with Daniel’s impeccable British accent). They need me to be invested in what they’re doing. Tomorrow the “others” may be those I see in the parking lot of the grocery store or co-workers in the office. And sometimes the “others” are people I’ll never meet but will nevertheless impact with volunteer efforts.
So – at least for now – I resolve to be more aware of people in need around me. I resolve to learn openness and kindness from my kids. And I resolve to figure out Facebook. Well, maybe I’ll do that another day…