A Little Love

Its been a deadly year. Natural death is expected. All the rest is a jolt to the system.

Two weeks ago the daughter of a local woman was found dead in her car due to a heroin overdose. Years of enabling revealed itself with this horrible outcome. Last weekend the news was filled with the story of a murder-suicide in our community that hit everyone hard. A mother with a special needs daughter was at her breaking point and put extra meds in her daughters feeding tube and then took a boat load of meds herself. Her daughter, it seems, was physically violent with her mom and several times the authorities were called in and reports were made. This  mother tried to get help from the services that are supposed to help, but no one came along side to help. At least not quickly enough. Now, her daughter is dead and her own life hangs on hinges. If she also passes away a whole family will be dealing with an enormous amount of grief at once. If she survives she faces criminal charges and the whole family will be dealing with an enormous amount of grief. It looks like a lose/lose situation.


A friends husband is in recovery and mentioned to his wife that a person who has just left rehab was home a few days and committed suicide. With all the programs that are supposedly available to us, why are so many people feeling alone, hopeless and overwhelmed?


Maybe it's not up to the programs. Maybe it's up to us. Recovery, churches, social service programs and the like can only do so much. Why are we afraid to stop and say hello to someone once in a while and lend an ear? With all the modern technology to communicate, we communicate less than ever.


A simple song came to mind the other day and though it may seem cheesy it ran over and over in my mind.


Think of your fellow man
Lend him a helping hand
Put a little love

in your heart
You see it's getting late
Oh, please don't hesitate
Put a little love in your heart


And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me
You just wait and see 

You know this one. Jackie DeShannon wrote and sang this song, which is quite catchy. It really doesn't take much to make a difference in someone else's life. You just never know what your smile, kind word or a note might mean to a hurting person. 



3 comments:

Unknown said...

I just wish it was that simple. There is just something that happens in the mind of those subject to incredible despair.

Many many have held their hands out. Many have tried to help.

I once tried for 4 years to make a difference in the substandard housing low income projects in Portland OR.

I thought that if I could SHOW the women a different way, a proactive way, a proud way to go to college, get job skills and get out of the projects and despair surrounding them, that I could help end the cycle of baby, welfare, discontent.

They didn't want helped. I learned.

I tend to think that what everyone calls the presence of the antichrist is simply the worsening of despair.

Anonymous said...

Nicely done. Maybe all these programs don't work as well as they should because people don't want to do their part. Maybe they expect their 'demons' to be removed just because they go to a meeting or read something or recite a prayer by rote.
Maybe they never took time to think about and understand faith.
The Piggy Bank Kid

Syd said...

I think that all each of us can do is hold out a hand to another. If someone fails to grasp mine, then I have done my part. I cannot save another from their own destruction.