I Need Help! Who Will Answer The Call? A Moment With Bill Essay.

I want to believe! I want to believe that anyone, when asked for help from someone who truly needs it, would give that assistance. I really want to believe that.

The love of my life, Bev, tells me that I am a cynical optimist, and I guess that is true. I am forever drinking from the Kool Aid container of life, allowing hope and positive energy to give me strength, and yet a part of me doubts that my fellow men and women will live up to the expectations I have set for them.

I tell myself that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, and in that description the best and the worst of humanity can be found. We are destined for greatness from the moment of our birth, and yet we often fall so far short when that greatness is within our grasp. I see a loving mother nurturing her child and then berating a homeless stranger. I see the social worker helping those in need and yet ignoring the abuse in her extended family. I see a ten year old boy lovingly kiss his infirmed grandmother and then bully a smaller child on the playground. I see…I see....I see!

So how can I not be a cynical optimist? I hope for the best, expect the worst and am rarely surprised when the outcome lands somewhere in-between.

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”
Confucius

The urge to reach your full potential…..do you have it? We have the potential to soar with the angels and yet, all too often, we crawl on hands and knees with the primates. We have the ability to bring Technicolor into a world overcome by the grays of worry and sorrow and yet, all too often, we grow comfortable in the muted colors.

Full potential? I submit to you that most of us fail to reach 50% of our capabilities and sadly we seem content with that portfolio of mediocrity.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Leo Buscaglia

The potential to turn a life around….again, our potential!

Take a moment to look around. Have you noticed as you went about your daily affairs that there are people suffering out there? Have you noticed the hungry, the homeless, the abused and the forgotten? How could you not notice? They are literally everywhere and yet they seem to be invisible to so many. How is that possible?

“…..a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment….”

Five suggestions on how we can make a difference in the lives of others, and not one of those suggestions costs us a damn thing.

I hope for the best, expect the worst and am rarely surprised with the outcome.

If your son, or daughter, or any other beloved relative were in dire need of help, would you hope that someone would reach out and give them that help? If your daughter were being raped in a public place, would you expect someone to stop it? If your husband were in a traffic accident and needed medical assistance, would you expect someone to help him? If you had not eaten in three days, and you asked a stranger for help, would you expect that stranger to buy you a meal?

I am certain that you all answered in the affirmative to those questions, for what civilized human being would turn their back on someone being raped, injured or hungry?

And yet it happens daily!

How can we be called civilized when we are too busy to help those in need? Our angels are calling to us but we can’t hear them with the volume so loud on our iPods.

So I ask the question that is in the title of this article. Who will answer the call when someone cries out in help?

Such a little thing, to smile at another, and yet that megawatt smile has the power to illuminate the dark recesses of a heart desperately in need. Such a small thing, an honest compliment, and yet kindness is known to multiply as the loaves and fish, and feed the starving psyches so dearly in need of a friendly word.

How long does it take to say “good job,” or “you look nice today, “ or “thank you for your assistance?” Two seconds if that, and yet those two seconds can mean the difference between hope and despair. Can you spare two seconds of your time to make someone happy? Will you?

I commented on an article today that was written by a fellow member on HubPages. I received a comment back in which the young woman told me it was the first comment she had received that week, and that she was just about to give up and stop writing when my comment came and brightened her day.

It took me one minute to write the comment. One minute! Who knows what the future holds for that young woman as a writer? She may find great joy in the future because of her writing. Others may find beauty and comfort from her writings in the future. One compliment was the difference between giving up and continuing.

I listen to the love of my life. Bev has a habit of being right much more often than she is wrong, and when it comes to my writing she has great instincts. She sat me down a few nights ago and asked me to concentrate on delivering messages of empowerment with my writing. She said there is enough darkness in the world, and with my words I have the power to life up those who are faltering.

I believe her and I will keep my promise.

Each and every one of us can be the instrument of change in this world. With every single small act of kindness we alter reality. Every act of kindness is an act of love and I firmly believe in the power of love. Without love we are left to our basest of instincts. With love we reach for the heavens and approach our higher calling as a species.

To those of you reading this article, I believe in you! I believe in your goodness and I know you want to be the hand that reaches out to those in need. I believe you want to change this world for the better and I will stand strong by your side as we dismantle the old realities and create new ones.

Who will answer the call? I will, and I know you will, and you over there, and that will be our legacy to this world. Help was asked for and we answered the call, and if that doesn’t leave you with warm and fuzzies I don’t know what will!

How can I help you today?

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)