I read something this morning and I’ve seen it before. Every week, the same kind and caring woman posts a message to all of us in our community. In this post she asks us if we are well, if we have food, are we warm? She asks if there is anything that we need. The outpouring of love that I’ve read over the weeks has inspired me and has given me new hope.

In the responses, someone will say that they need a warm blanket…someone else needs a mechanic that she can trust and that won’t overcharge her. Someone needed money to buy the gas that she needed to get to work that week. Someone lost their home in a fire and needed everything.  There was a family that needed food and couldn’t get to food bank.  There are people that ask for prayers as they have a loved one needing a miracle.   Someone has just gotten a new job and needs clothes, someone else has just moved here and needs a friend.  Someone needs daycare and someone else needs a frying pan.

Every week and every time I’ve read the responses, I’m back in my junk car…praying I’d make it to work before I ran out of gas.  I’m back in time, and it wasn’t all that long ago, it was me that didn’t have black shoes and pants that I needed to start my new job and I didn’t have the money to get them, either. It was me that had a broken down car and no money to fix it.  Me! When day care was taking more than half of my pay check and my kids needed school clothes and a size larger shoes…my God …how was I going to do it???  I couldn’t take them to the dentist…I just couldn’t afford it…

It was me that couldn’t pay for the new books twice a year for book rental…and me that didn’t know how I was going to be able to get the brand name things for my kids…because they wanted to be like their friends. And being a poor kid, I remember how it felt to not have the cool stuff…I just wanted my life to be easier…I was afraid to even dream of a better and bigger life.  Of course, I know better now….but then??? It was misery and stress and sadness and FEAR!

My friend’s post each week reminds me that I can change the course of someone’s life with just a simple act of kindness…And the responses to her posts help me to see just how I can help. Someone needs gas money??? That’s pretty easy, right there. Venmo.  Someone needs baby toys?  Ha! I happen to have some of those. Oh! You need a pan, you say? Funny! I happen to have a couple that I was planning to leave at good will. Someone needs a friend? Always room for another friend.  I have so much and some have so little. It feels like I’m doing the work of the angels when I can help someone that needs it.

What stopped me, today, and practically wrote itself on this page, is that there is need and want all around. And we can all help. If it’s a cup of coffee for a stranger…or a couple dollars to cover someone that is too afraid to even dare to ask for help… To buy a tank of gas for someone that you can just tell needs the kindness of someone that cares… To dig through your cabinets for things that you haven’t touched or needed for years…or you can do what my friend Dawn has done…care enough to post something to your neighbors and community and ask if they are well…do they need food….what can we do to help.  What a blessing it is to watch and see how love floats around…from one of us to another of us. This is a chance for Karma to do her best work. What we give…we will receive…whether good or bad. Let’s be generous and kind and let’s help those that haven’t found their way to a better and easier life. Let’s give without expectation of return. Let’s be the reason that someone thanks God that their prayers were answered. There is a reason that we are prompted to do this or that….It’s prayers being answered, and the universe bending to manifest all that we need and want. I’m so very blessed to be able to help others. The light that lives in us all is asking us to hold out our hands. Let’s give today a chance to let love will win. We all need that.