Most people love helping others. It’s in our nature. Yet what is it about asking for or receiving help that can be such a challenge for us?
This lesson landed squarely in my life on Friday.
When I came out of my coaching appointment and saw my parked car smashed beyond recognition, my brain could not process what I was seeing. I think I was in a mild state of shock.
I later found out that a distracted driver (witnesses say she was texting) driving a pick-up truck with children in it, had hit my car with such force that it pushed the truck parked in front of my car up on to the curb. The woman driver fled the scene.
Though we don’t know about the children in the driver’s vehicle, no one near the hit-and-run incident was injured. For that I am grateful—and I pray for the welfare of the children who were involved.
Friday was a very hot day and those of us standing outside filling out reports and waiting for tow trucks were really feeling the effects of the heat.
A kind woman came running up to me with a glass of ice water, the police officer was so kind to me it made me cry, and my daughter and son-in-law were there by my side so quickly it made my head spin.
Witnesses to the accident stood in the smoldering heat to give their accounts to the police. By the time I got home, shaken and in disbelief, my son-in-law had already parked his car in my parking pad and handed me his key so I could would have a car to use.
My car, which is totaled, is a material loss and material losses can be replaced. The kindness that ensued as a result of it though, is a gain for everyone involved.
Receiving can make us feel vulnerable. Many of us like being the helper more than being the one receiving help. Let’s open our minds and hearts to being helped so that we can give the same joy to others that we receive when we assist them in their time of need.
There are kind acts happening as I type these words and more of them occurring as you read this post. Kind acts, big and small, are happening all around us. Humans are beautiful in the ways they help one another.
