Creative Help?

Have you ever thought of how you can creatively help someone? I am not referring to painting a picture for a homeless person. What I am suggesting at is this: Some of us may be "artsy", but all of us are creative. We often use that creativity to benefit ourselves, those whom we know, those whom we want to impress, or those whom we want to make money off of.

But what about finding creative ways to help strangers. Or people we don't know who have a need. Again, I am not suggesting that we "create" something for them, but rather we help them in a way that takes them by surprise.

At this point, I am ready to rattle off a list of "you might try...", but I don't want to do that. Rather, I challenge you to start thinking! How can you meet a need? Other than putting a few dollars in someone's cup, what could you do to help?

Any ideas or suggestions?

Talk

How's this for finding true love on the internet:

The Australia Daily Telegraph reports that unhappily married couple Sana and Adnan Klaric secretly spent hours in an online chatroom pouring their hearts out to their respective cyber-lovers about their own marital troubles. The responses on the other end of the conversations carried the same angst of unhappy marriages.

"I was suddenly in love," said Sana, 27. "It was amazing. We seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriage. How right that turned out to be."

Little did the two know before they met face-to-face for a date that they were actually married to each other.

Unfortunately there is no happy ending for this couple. They are divorcing, accusing the other of infidelity.

How much better it could have been if they had only talked to each other (knowing it was their spouse). Maybe their dissatisfaction with their spouse could have been addressed in conversations and remedies for their troubled relationship could have been agreed upon. It appears that they didn't do much conversing with each other (that they were aware of anyway).

Talk. Talk to your spouse, your children, your friends, your boss, your co-workers. Ask questions. Give honest feedback. Work toward improving all of your relationships. And remember what your parents taught you: Don't talk to strangers.

My Responsibility

Ouch! I didn't realize it, but it has been a month since my last post. I got busy with 'life' and neglected my 'wider life'. No excuses though! We are all busy, and we all have responsibilities.

Which brings me to the concept of taking responsibility. All of us have things (relationships, assignments, expectations of others, etc.) that we are responsible for. Some things are required (stopping at red lights, paying our bills on time), and have consequences when we don't take responsibility. Other things are not so imminent, and we can "fudge" a bit (spending time with our children, studying, missing a day of exercise).

But we must remember that when we aren't diligent with our responsibilities, we eventually pay the price. My children become distant, my mind looses its edge, and the next day I run... I feel it!

Even with this Blog. If I go without regular posts, then those who might read the Blog will eventually lose interest because there is nothing fresh.

For that I take responsibility.

Therein lies another aspect of responsibility: owning-up when we fail. In our culture, it is popular to place the responsibility on others, to blame someone else. But true character dictates that when I fail, I admit that it was my mistake. I seek forgiveness and make restitution when necessary. In a sense I am taking responsibility for my irresponsibility.

So there you have it. I wasn't responsible for posting to my Blog on a regular basis. But, I didn't blame it on anything other than the fact that I didn't post on my Blog regularly. Simply put, I wasn't responsible, but now I am.