If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.
-Buddhist saying
We live in a largely individualistic society. Our culture emphasizes self-sufficiency and control in the pursuit of achieving individual goals. We must make an effort to guard against the tendency to focus on ourselves to the exclusion of our fellow human beings. The tendency towards selfishness rather than giving.
I’m not saying we all follow this, it simply happens, through busy work schedules, stressful events, and just our hectic lives in general. Even for those of us that follow a self-centered approach, helping others has its own advantages:
- It makes you feel better about yourself.
- It connects you with another human while helping them.
- Improves the state of the world.
- Your good deed could lead to a chain of good deeds.
By no means does helping have to be a production, simple signs that we acknowledge the existence of other people might be enough to make someone feel a little better. Volunteer, donate, teach, help, listen, smile, and most importantly, love. Let’s make this world a better place, put a smile on someone’s face.
8/18/08 – 4.1 miles in 00:35:18
8/16/08 – 6.42 miles in 01:01:21
I am a teacher at a girls’ high school. I am making an intranet page for our counselling department, and would very much like to use your great”helping hand” image.
Please, may I?
I look forward to your response
Sure, it’s not a problem at all
I too would like to use this wonderful photo on my blog for a post about volunteerism. Would that be okay?
Go for it Deb. Thanks for stopping by.