One of the elders in our co-op has not been well as of late. She ended up in the ICU at Saint Paul’s last week, having been taken in by ambulance. As often happens, she didn’t get a chance to gather anything to take with her, like a hair brush, toothbrush, reading glasses, slippers.
An email went around looking for someone to take a bag of her personal things down to her, and I offered to do it.
Not because I don’t have a bunch of other things to do on a Saturday morning. Not even because we’re particularly close to her.
Simply because we were able to do it, and wanted to help.
Not in a “Look! Teachable moment!” kind of way, no. More like a “this is what we do for neighbours” kind of way. As in, “no big deal, this is simply what we do” kind of way.
Esmé loves helping. She loves fetching thing for people, dropping off plates of fresh baked goods, holding open doors, walking dogs, feeding cats, collecting mail, doing laundry, and sharing just about anything that needs sharing. Especially with her neighbours.
I like that it’s not a special thing for her. Not a once in a while thing. Not an occasional Golden Moment. Definitely not a reason to pull out a conversation about being a Good Samaritan or anything else remotely ‘school-y’ or lesson-ish. That’s a killjoy at the best of times.
Helping is what we do, because we like to help, and we make it a priority. It’s something Jack and I both did as individuals before we met, and something we continue to do as a family now. We leave enough time and space and money in our lives to give it to other people when they’re in need, with no expectation of anything in return. It feels good, and it’s the right thing to do. Easy and meaningful. Nicely done. A heartwarming bonus to simplifying life and keeping an eye on the village that so often lends us a hand when we need it. What goes around, comes around.
Truly. And thankfully.
