Hello Steemers!
Today I am writing about sharing, and how I have experienced sharing over the past couple of years. What sharing means to me is the writing prompt for the Happy Bubbles contest that I am participating in for another 3 weeks. You can read my previous entry into this competition here.
Donating to a charity is easy, and sadly these days, almost pointless given how little of the donated money actually goes to those needing it. Giving someone your time, now that is real generosity. There is nothing more valuable than your time after all.
Meet my Amazing Wife
My wife (Sandra) is the perfect example of someone who volunteers a huge amount of her time to help others. She volunteers for the state emergency services who respond to non-life threatening emergencies throughout our local area. She's been out on jobs preventing homes from flooding, removing fallen branches from roads, and has even spent many hours searching for missing people. It can be demanding work since she can get called out to help at any time of the day or night, and even though she works a stressful full time job, she loves it.
Sandra also provides support to a family with an autistic child. The young boy needs people of various ages to interact with so that he can develop his social skills in a safe and comfortable manner. Sandra spends a few hours every week with this young lad, and gets a lot of pleasure from watching him grow and develop his confidence in interacting with people. Sandra has really developed a strong bond with him and his family.
Meet My Amazing Oldies
The one thing that I love about owning a gym, is the fact that I meet such a diverse range of people every day. And most of the people that I meet are incredibly kind and generous. Owning this gym has shown me that the vast majority of people out there are genuinely good people. So many of them give willingly and freely, and never expect a thing in return.
My best example are the group of seniors (aged 65+) who train at my gym. We run strength and mobility classes for them so that they can build and maintain their fitness which helps them maintain their independence as they head into their golden years. My oldest member is 84! And while they do actually workout in the gym, they mostly use my gym as their social hub. Some of them have even started dating each other which kind of adorable and disturbing at the same time.
I have never met a more kind and generous group of people in my life. All you need to do is mention that you need something, and they'll do everything in their power to provide you the help you need. When one of them gets sick, a few of them will cook meals and take them over to their friends house so that they don't need to cook until they are well again. Can't drive to the doctors? One of them will come around and take you there.
They give so much, it's incredibly heart warming and weirdly infectious.
Recently, the husband (Bob) of one of my senior members (Robyn) had a fall and broke his shoulder. And to make matters worse, while he was in hospital he fell again, this time breaking his leg. This meant that Robyn had to become the full time carer for Bob and wasn't able to come to the gym any more.
The two of them were among the first of my senior members. So it felt strange not having them in the gym every week. While out walking one day I realised I was near their house so I stopped in to say hello and see how they were getting on. What I discovered worried me. As it turns out, Robyn wasn't getting much help from her family. Her two sons have large families and very demanding jobs, so they had very little time to come around and help Robyn and Bob.
Robyn was exhausted. She could barely look after Bob and the house, let alone look after their large property. So, from that day, I've been visiting them at least once a fortnight to look after their garden. I'm not much use inside a house but quite good at gardening. Since buying my gym, I haven't had a garden to care for. The house we live in now is tiny with no real outdoors area.
This little act of kindness has made Bob very happy. While he's recovering he sits in his back room overlooking his garden. So seeing that it is cared for makes him much more relaxed. And the little act of kindness has taken some stress away from Robyn since she now knows that the garden won't look unkempt and she doesn't need to spend what little time she has pulling weeds or watering it.
I now have a large garden to look after which I get great enjoyment from. Robyn doesn't understand this since she was never much of a gardener. So she's constantly offering to pay me. It can get awkward at times saying no to her. So I always explain to her that I want to help, and that I'm not doing it for any kind of reward.
I tried explaining to her the very simple philosophy that do my best to uphold:
If you are in a position to help someone, you are obligated to do so.
She still wants to pay me for my time however I think she understands the point I'm trying to make.
Volunteering or simply helping people that need support has become a large part of my life. I love seeing people smile when you do something kind to help them. And knowing that I've made someone's life easier or better gives me great joy and satisfaction.
What I've discovered however, is that there are a lot of people out there that are too afraid or too proud to ask for help. Not everyone will go to a volunteer organisation or support group when they need help. Robyn and Bob are two of those people. They didn't even tell their own children how badly they needed help. They're simply too kind and proud to do that.
Thankfully, since I started helping them, others have noticed that they need help as well. Now their neighbours bring them meals, another neighbour takes their bins out every week, and they have me to look after their garden. Robyn and Bob will be OK, Bob is gradually regaining his strength. So in a few months, he should be almost back to his old ways.
In the meantime though, they have their little community who are rallying around them to make sure they get on. It's amazing to see the kindness of the community coming out to help some people who are in great need, but too kind to ask for help. And the senior members of my gym will always be there to provide help where they can as well. It's an amazing little community that we've built here, and it brings me great joy every day.
So, I guess the point of this post is that you should keep an eye out for those in need who are too proud/ shy/ nervous to ask for help. Those are often the people who need help the most. Offer those people your time and energy, and one day the people you help will probably go on to help someone else.
I love the concept of pay it forward, but sometimes people need more than a free coffee.
