topic of the week

H E L P E R S

So many people are struggling right now. Trite, I know.

I’m not even talking about the wars—the macro, newsworthy stuff—I’m talking the micro. I’m talking about my friends and clients who are saying goodbye to friends, family, pets, and dreams. I’m watching truly terrible people succeed and truly wonderful people live with cancer. Nothing makes sense.

Aren’t the good guys supposed to win?

When the world gets like this, I sit and let myself have a moment of disappointment. I wallow, but only for a minute. (Okay, maybe sometimes that minute is really a week.)

Then I shrug it off and think about the good. It’s all we can do, right?

I think about how I can be a strong support for my daughter and my husband and my parents and my friends and, well, even strangers. I think of my clients who tell me that I’m the one person they feel comfortable sharing deeply personal stories with. I’m glad for this. When Mr. Rogers shared that his mother said to “look for the helpers,” I knew that I wanted to be one of them.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that the dark moments are merely a setback: I am not my worst emotions. Neither are you. If we live our lives to truly serve and support each other without the need for fanfare, we are the helpers the world needs.

And right now the world is badly in need of more of more of us.

This song always helps get me into a different headspace.