I almost stumbled over this box on my way out the door.
Now I am not complaining, I am just saying that there was this big box sitting at my doorstep, which I had not been expecting to receive and so I almost tripped over it walking out my front door.
Always eager to delve into surprise packages, I grabbed my scissors and cut through the packing tape. Inside the box I found four winter hats and four pairs of winter gloves.
Well, ostensibly this was a box of warm hats and gloves, but actually, it was a box of love.
Several weeks ago I put out a call for help; I was going through a lot of difficult transition–including a sudden and unhappy move to a new home–and I felt a need for a little shower of love. A giant shower, actually.
My call for help was disguised as an invitation to something I named the Mailbox Housewarming.
I sent out an Evite to friends and family explaining that I had moved, into a new place too small for a real party, so would they / could they please join me in a Mailbox Housewarming party, by mailing me just any ole thing that I could then discover in my mailbox, and then hang on my wall to bring a little bit of my friends into my new apartment, and keep me company.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don’t ask for help. Not only that, I do not accept offers of help. I am working to get over that–but it is a practice I have had for half a century now, so it is not the easiest thing to drop.
So I concocted the Mailbox Housewarming invite as a disguised way of asking for help.
I was probably the only one fooled by the disguise.
But I certainly ended up with the shower of love that I needed, and a few other things as well.
- I have been reminded that asking for help is possible
- I have been reminded that my people are happy to help me
- I have been reminded that I am loved
But there has also been an interesting aspect of this which has struck me.
Originally I thought, “Oh look, these people love me.” But then I realized, “Oh look, these are loving people.”
This is bigger than just all about me. And that is fabulous news.
My world, my life, today is abundant with loving people. It was not always so. There was a time when my world was full of unhappy, unhealthy, “energy vampire” people who took and took and took from me.
(Oh, maybe they did not intend to take from me, but they did.)
Now, I understand that the world is overrun with broken people, people who genuinely need help. And I care about that, believe me. I truly do.
But, being with broken people is not good for me; it is something that I cannot handle without diminishing my spirit and my strength. Several years ago I finally recognized and accepted that. And becoming a little self-centered about what is good for me, it cleared up a lot of space for more healthful, loving people to enter my world.
So in the midst of all my own recent muck that led me to the Mailbox Housewarming cry for help, I can see
- My life is blessed with a bounty of truly beautiful people
- Sticking up for myself brought these people into my world
- People are happy to help me
- Asking for help can bring me great things which I never knew existed
- Go team
- Yeah me
Photo by me.
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