Someone Asked: “What are the two worst problems faced by the world today?”
The Wise Man Answered: “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
Crazy as it sounds, the wise man was right.
Our days are wrapped up in the busyness of our lives, consumed with minutia: Social media, dinner plans, kids’ sports, politics, and of course, getting ahead at work. Although it seems these things really are most important, it sometimes takes a crisis in our lives to find out they are not as big a deal as we thought they were.
That was me, living my busy life, raising a family, working for a corporation, under the gun to produce and prove myself, until a fateful accident changed everything. I was paralyzed from the neck down with little hope of recovery. Obviously, I couldn’t work, and by the time I was released from the hospital, my wife couldn’t work either, because she became my nurse, replacing a round-the-clock staff. To say this experience was life changing, is the greatest of understatements.
Yet, it was while I was still totally paralyzed, I started realizing I needed to figure out a way to do something to help others. I, who had had one goal of happiness through personal success, had became acutely aware that everyone around me was either keeping me alive, or helping me to heal. I somehow knew I too was on earth to help others in a substantial and meaningful way. I didn’t know what I would be doing, or how it would happen. I just knew.
We buzz along in life, we marry and raise children and BAM: One of our perfect kids dies from an overdose, or ends up in prison because of a misstep that was never on the radar. A wife of 14 years, decides she’s leaving, or a husband decides he’s madly in love with his 23-year-old secretary. It doesn’t matter what valley you tumble into, nobody gets by without a bad fall or two in life. For me, climbing out of the valley to the mountain top took time, but what I do now, in partnership with my wife, is what I was put on earth to do. And there’s nothing like that feeling.
Everyone isn’t meant to go full time out on that limb. But even a weekly volunteer is fed by the good feelings of helping others. It’s called “the helper’s high.” Study after study shows “improved well-being and life satisfaction, a decrease in depression, and lower blood pressure, etc. etc. I’m not saying life’s little things aren’t important, but if there are no BIG things that make a difference to others, we are missing the greatest opportunities of our lives. Whether we feel led to start something new, or just think building wheelchair ramps sounds like fun, that is how good works begin.
If there really is a helper’s high, let’s get high together. Click Here to volunteer!
Jim
