To Lift One Another...

(Written February 22, 2009)

This life is pretty interesting, to say the least. Full of exciting opportunities, fascinating people, triumphs, heartbreaks, truths, lies, black and white, shades of gray, joy, pain...on and on we go, never really knowing what will happen tomorrow. This uncertainty creates fear in a lot of us, which is understandable. But I think, within each of us, lies the capacity to turn that fear upside down and transform it into an optimistic hope. How do we achieve this? Is it as simple as deciding that every today can and should be better than every yesterday? Or is that just too darn unrealistically optimistic? With all the trials and hardships we go through, is it ridiculous to think that that’s actually possible?

What if we were to decide that not knowing what will happen tomorrow gives us every reason to look forward to it, and EXPECT that it will be even better than today? Much more than that though, I believe one of the primary purposes of this life is to lift up one another; help each other; be there for each other. Perhaps that is the solution to turning fear into hope. As we lift others around us, the problems in our own lives suddenly seem less significant, and the solutions become clearer. As we devote less time to dwelling on ourselves, I believe it keeps us more open for true joy to enter into our lives.

One big frustration attached to this pursuit of living is that often times, people that we care about keep themselves closed to the point where they won’t allow us to help. I’ve done that many times myself, and unfortunately, I’ll probably continue to do it, but I’m trying to be better about that. It’s hard though. And why is it so hard? A common belief we seem to hold stubbornly strong to is that when people help, or give in anyway—even if it’s just a random gift because they were thinking of you—we tend to think they’re putting themselves out. We feel it’s a hardship for them. Or, much worse, we convince ourselves that we somehow just don’t deserve it; that we’re not good enough. Even worse still, we don’t believe we deserve to have these people in our lives. Even with doing this myself, I don’t understand how we can so effectively integrate these vicious lies into our collective philosophy. I do it all the time, and I see others do it every single day. It is so frustratingly common!

The simple truth is, we cannot go through this life by ourselves. As often as feelings of loneliness will enter into us, we must remember that we are never truly alone. By allowing people to help us with things we genuinely need help with, we are granting them the opportunity to experience and feel the kind of joy that simply cannot come in any other way. Service is always a two-way deal, and I believe that to be one of the most beautiful truths this life has to offer.

If we are truly, literally connected to one another as a human family, then invariably, every time we give or accept any kind of service (no matter how small or simple), we are strengthening that connection and lifting up the whole of humanity to become something even greater than we already are. And that is saying quite a bit, because we’re already pretty extraordinary human beings; all 6 billion+ of us!

To be open is to love, to achieve, to progress. When we close ourselves, we lose all of that.