I’m pretty independent…sometimes too independent. I figure that people have better things to do than help me when technically I CAN manage. Today, though, juggling a toddler and a heavy box I needed to exchange at an auto parts store I accepted a helping hand. A kind man in the parking lot offered to carry the box into the store and I turned him down. He happened to be leaving the same time as me as well and said, “Please, let me help you.” Maybe it was the tone of his “please,” maybe it was the gut feeling that he wasn’t creepy, or maybe it was the fact that I really wasn’t sure I could make to the car with the even heavier new item under my arm. Whatever the case, I gratefully handed it over. As we got to my car and I thanked him, he admitted, “I have ulterior motives.”

“Oh, great,” I thought, “My gut lied.”

He continued, “I’ve been sitting with my dying father for the last two weeks and I can’t tell you how good it feels just to  talk to a living breathing person and feel like I’m being some actual use to someone.”

I left the interaction feeling a warmth and generosity toward all humanity and the sense that we’re all in this together. We could all use a little help sometimes, as well as the opportunity to offer help. May the good you receive equal the good you share.

…aaaand since I don’t have a picture to illustrate this life lesson, here’s another onion 🙂

Onion # 3  4″x4″ Oil on panel
$75