Personally, I hope to become a very helpful person when and if I ever grow up. I hope to be someone who focuses on making it a priority to encourage others, to help others, to make life easier for others. It’s not always easy to do so, though. Sometimes I get quite caught up in my needs that I simply don’t see–or recognize–the needs of others. In order to help others, though, I need to be aware that they have needs that need to be filled–and I have to be aware that I have the ability to fill some of those needs.
I’m not talking about huge things. I can’t pay off someone’s bills or make their mortgage payments for them. I can’t get rid of their pain or their mourning. But I can do a task for them that will free them up for something else. I can teach them something that will be beneficial for them to know (as long as they’re open to learning something from me!). I can encourage them or compliment them. I can show an interest in who they are and what they do. I can buy them a small gift like a candy bar for no reason other than just to give them something as a small token of how glad I am that they’re in my life.
Helpful people are great teachers for me. They show me what it means to be human, to be unselfish, to allow ourselves to be a part of the larger whole, rather than a lone individual who exists apart from everyone else. I appreciate their lessons, and I hope to live up to them!
The human being who lives only for him or herself finally reaps nothing
but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies.
Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.
but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies.
Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.
B.C. Forbes
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