[lit-ideas] Re: New Year's Resolutions

  • From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 23:45:04 EST

 
In a message dated 12/29/2005 10:11:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

I can't even stand going to the  supermarket or the Walmart for that reason, 
because it really hurts me to see  the way people treat their kids.  Sometimes 
I can't wait to get out of  the stores. I think volunteering is wonderful but 
I'd rather read a  book or do something like that.  I appre ciate the 
suggestions, they are excellent.  But for now I  think they wouldn't work for me


Dear Irene/Andy,
Thanks for being candid.
 
However--if YOU are not able to handle volunteering or making the world a  
better place--maybe that is why you are not able to understand that there are  
people who ARE doing what they can to do so?
 
I, absolutely, understand how hard it is when one gets 'tipped over the  
edge' (as I call it).  
 
What I do NOT understand is how someone who gets tipped over the edge (and  
that is, I think, what is happening to you...) can do so--can see the hurting  
ones--and not do anything to make it better.  
 
If you didn't have the means, then I would say--just go up and 'be  there'.  
THAT, just by itself, is often enough to give someone the  courage/the 
hope/the help that they need to keep on walking to the other  side.
 
THAT would be empathy/sympathy (and whether you are feeling what they feel  
because you've been there [empathy] or because you are feeling what they feel  
because you are able to imagine what they are going through [sympathy]--well,  
either one ought to have the outcome of motivating one to DO something to 
make  the 'whatever the pain is' better.)
 
So--kids and dogs are not your passion?  Then--what about being a  hospice 
volunteer?  They ALL need help.  Or, even be in touch with  some of the 
'home-health' people--the ones who are in touch with the homebound  who need 
someone 
to either go to the library to pick up books for them, to pick  up 
groceries/prescriptions/or just to WATCH the homebound person so that the  
caregiver can 
get out and get her hair done or see some friends or go to a  friend's house 
for a quick and needed break.
 
It sounds like you want the world to be a better place but you don't want  to 
have any part in making it happen?  You may be cross at the people who  are 
doing the mean stuff--I, also, get cross at them. But, truthfully--my  
crossness is even more at the hypocrisy of those who complain AND HAVE THE 
MEANS  to 
make changes for the better for SOME part of their corner of the world--and  
who hideout instead.
 
The light is shining, Irene/Andy.  It's shining on YOU, asking YOU to  do 
SOMETHING GOOD for humanity...not just hide in a cocoon because YOU hurt when  
you see someone else hurting!  WHO is going to make that hurt person  better??? 
 
If YOU see the pain--it is up to YOU to touch shoulders--even if  it simply 
to say you actually CARE.  Sometimes knowing someone else  cares--it is all 
that someone can do.
 
Oh!  If you were here and interested in  helping--I'd have you go  wandering 
with me tomorrow.  At the end of the blood drive tonight--the  head guy was 
going to be tossing out the poinsettas that were at the location as  they were 
donated and had been given as 'thank yous' to people who gave  blood.  I had 
interacted with two single moms (one who had, on the way to  work during a snow 
storm right before Christmas, wrecked her car--) and one was  a bit more 
positive about the coming year--and the other!  oh, she was/is  still just 
hurting. 
 Yes--I know what it is like to just want to gather and  comfort a hurting 
one--she's on my lengthy list of calling for assistance in  that electrical 
energy way to the Universe thing that I do...  
 
and, so tomorrow--it's a little thing but will be sweet--I can give her a  
poinsetta!  And, I have about seven others to give away to people as I  think 
of 
who might need to have a bit of color and cheer in life.  I'd have  you go 
with me--I'd make you go into a store and actively LOOK for a hurting  lost 
one--and then we'd cheer her up!!
 
YOU could do that.  It wouldn't take much--believe me.  When you  go to the 
supermarket and you think you see/hear a hurting one--DO  SOMETHING.  
 
So, I'm continuing with the list of ideas for you, Irene/Andy--until you  
begin to walk in that Empathy that you seek--until YOU walk in that Light which 
 
is calling you.
 
Send waves of love and energy and hope to those who are hurting.  They  DO 
need it--and they especially need to know you CARE...
 
but, you are right--little light shines when you hole up and whimper.   NO 
ONE gets helped then!!  If you see or hear the need--YOUR obligation as  a 
person, a caring person especially, is to DO SOMETHING.  
 
And, you are NOT alone when you do that!!!  and-- come back and share  when 
you do!
 
Please.  You can.  You MUST.  The world--your world--your  corner of the 
world--needs you.
 
Use those resources you have.  Share them. Share yourself!  (I  won't add the 
sidenote of how you are then otherwise the same as those who also  do not 
share on a global way...)
 
As I memorized from my Lines to Live By book when I was fifteen:
 
It's not what you'd do with riches
Should riches ever be your lot.
But what are doing at present
With the $1.50 you've got?
 
You have--you are.  You can give, you can share.  Be AND  do.  Be that change 
you long to see in the world.  BE that  example!
 
Do what you can with what you have.  It's more than you think--and you  WILL 
help those you run from!  Don't run.  They need you--and you  CAN do this!
 
I'm with you.  Walk with me...
 
Best,
Marlena in Missouri
waiting for Irene's light to shine...

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