Round and Round and Round It Goes, Where It Stops Nobody Knows....

Where am I needed. I know I need to go somewhere, to experience something I have never experienced, to see the world in all her glory and in all her suffering as well. We have it too good here in the US. We complain about healthcare when there are people in the world who have nothing near healthcare. We complain about not having a dollar in our pocket when in some places, a dollar is more than enough to feed a child for month. We complain about our pillow being lumpy, our house being too cold, our rain being two wet when elsewhere they pray for rain, they pray for a pillow, and they shiver through the cold because they know, deep in their hearts, that the sun will come again to warm their souls.

Africa is calling my name, I can hear her voice in the wind, I can see her need in my heart and I can fell that is is the right place to be in my life. I need to give more than I need to receive. Yes, to have a job, a home, money, a family, that would be nice but at this point in my life, it's not what I want. Not at all. I want to see the world, I want to help those who need it, I want to learn the lessons of life that you can only learn around a fire from a village elder. I want to know how life is supposed to be live, how laughter is supposed to feel, how love can overcome all. I want to know the world so in turn, the world will know me. To make a child smile, to make a difference in a life, to change the future, that is what I am meant to do and it is worth more to me than any dollar I could ever earn.

Finding our way through the darkness.

"We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own."

I've wanted to start a blog for quite a long time now, and it finally occurred to me to do it after my trip to Costa Rica (More to come on that in a later post). Today I want to talk about the quote that begins this post. I think that helping people is one of the greatest feelings in the world. But when we help someone else, is it okay that it might help ourselves as well? It is okay if we gain something while giving something? It is selfish to think that by doing something good for someone else that it should do something good for me?

Today, while pumping gas, a young woman approached me and asked for money to help her fill her tank. Instantly, I shrugged it off, told her that I didn't have any cash to give her (which was totally true) and let her go on the next person. But something inside of me started grumbling. How could I refuse to help another person when I just spent a week helping those in need? I didn't know her story, I didn't know if she was telling the truth, I didn't know if she would actually use the money for gas or not. Then I looked behind me, sitting in the passenger seat of her old beat up truck was her boyfriend and he was sitting with his head leaning on the dash with a totally worn out, beaten down look. It was as if life had just knocked him for a loop multiple times. The grumbling inside of me grew stronger and it made me realize that this is a chance we are given to share the love and compassion in our lives. This was a chance to make someone else's day a little bit brighter. 

A few months back, on my 25th birthday, I decided that I was going to do 25 things on my bucket list and in turn help others accomplish something as well. Now I know that pumping gas into your car is not on anyone's bucket list but today, it was on my today list. As I was driving down the road and thinking about getting gas, I decided not to get it tonight, but my inner voice told me to pull in there. Something was telling me to go to the gas station and so I did. One of the items on my BL is 33. Help someone in a time of need and today was the day that I got to cross that one off the list. After my brain realized what to do, I walked over the pump the couple was parked at, told her to open her gas tank cap, put my credit card into the machine and started to fill up her truck. When the dollar amount rolled to $15 she and her boyfriend told me to stop but I told her I would do $20 and the look on their face was totally worth it. They both didn’t know what to say or to do and you could tell that no one had ever helped them like that before. She said they expected to get enough money for maybe a gallon of gas, let alone 5. She begged me for my phone number, name, or a way to contact me so they could pay me back but I politely refused and told them to just pay it forward when they encounter someone else in need. I smiled and said goodbye and drove away with a deep sense of doing something good.  

It is okay to light another's path while we gain from the light ourselves? I think it is, actually I know it is, because we are all in this world together. The only think I gained from this is a good feeling of helping another in a time of need, and if that is wrong, I don't want to be right. 

Light someone else's path and maybe you will find the way along your own.