Helping Others

"One should give only what people need or want, 
and in the way they need or want it." 
    __Peter Levy, The Flutes of Autumn 


   It is a good and natural thing for us to want to help and support others.
But it can also be a very difficult thing, as we may have already discovered.
There are a number of factors we must consider before we step forward to
assist someone. In the first place, help may not be wanted. In the second
place, if help is wanted, we may not be the best people to bring it. The one
we wish to help may not want our assistance or be able to receive it. This
inability to ask for or receive help can be very frustrating to the would-be
helper, but for the one in need, personal control over her life - even to the
extent of refusing help - may be all that she has left. To persist in helping
in the face of down-right refusal is a way of further dis-empowering that
person in need.
   When we help others in order to help ourselves, we are on a slippery
slope of self-delusion. Sometimes, after discovering something wonderfully
efficacious to our own condition, we press that something on everyone we
meet in a fit of convert fevor and excessive zeal. People find their own ways
to ask help. Our part is simply to be sensitive to the signs (Whether obvious
or indistinct) that they make in our direction. Then we can look into what kind
of help is needed, what nature of support and backup is desired, when to
back off and let well enough alone so that nature can heal wounds. If our
personal help is inappropriate or inexpert, we must leave the helping in
the hands of those better capable than ourselves and not press our attentions
where they are not wanted.

Is there something you need to ask help with at this time? If so, is 
there someone you know whom you would like to have help you?
[From: The Celtic Spirit Caitlin Matthews]