“Helping doesn’t always help.”

Anne Lamott, American novelist and non-fiction writer

Image from Unsplash by Wonderland

In his work, Meditations, Marcus Aurelius stated:

“Joy for human beings lies in proper human work and proper human work consists in: acts of kindness to other human beings…”

How have you been trying to help others in your various communities these past few months?

How have others accepted your acts of kindness and service?

How have your good intentions and efforts, on certain occasions, not helped or improved the situation?

It seems that despite our own best efforts to put forth what we perceive as our best human work, others in our world do not always see it as such and sometimes don’t seem to benefit.

At these times, your generous intentions and efforts can be replaced by far less pleasant emotions, leaving us clueless.

EXERCISE:

Consider the idea that you are speaking to a loved one or someone you care about in a new language that they do not understand or appreciate. What might be the benefit of listening for greater understanding and learning more about the language they are speaking?