How we help!

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?

George Eliot

When someone is tired, suffering, or grieving a loss, we may find ourselves saying “if there is anything I can do to help please call” or perhaps a friend is tired and we offer to look after their children when in fact what may really help them is if we vacuum their house for them so they can spend time with the children. If we really want to help another perhaps a good way is to give some time, for example “I have an hour I would like to give you, how would you like to use it?” In this way the other person knows exactly what they can ask for without feeling they are imposing.

Do you know a friend who needs some of your time at this moment?

Emanate good feelings

Decorate yourself from the inside out.

Terri Guillemets

I find this image so lovely. Recently I had someone come to me looking more beautiful than usual, and she even seemed to have lost some weight. She wasn’t wearing something new, she hadn’t had a haircut, and she said she hadn’t lost any weight. However, she said that she was feeling so good about herself, something she hadn’t felt for some time. It absolutely spilled out of her, and it was a true delight to be in her company.

What steps can you take to decorate yourself from the inside out?

Planting seeds

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a friend who is always reminding me of the seeds that need planting … recently I said to her that I think I am even further back – that I sometimes believe I am only turning the ground so the seeds can be planted. She taught me a good lesson that day … another one on perspective. She pointed out that in fact I wasn’t further back, that I was the first one to do the work … that the earth needed to be turned even before the planting of the seeds.

How often do you look at something from the perspective of what is not there rather than what is there – and what thoughts can you adopt to balance this perspective?