Dec 24, 2012

Peeling back the skin of 2012





Has it been a good year, a bad year, a year of growth, of depression, of betrayal, a year of discovering that things are not always what they seem to be? Had someone told me at the beginning of the year that I would develop Parkinson’s I would have laughed. But that is the surreptitiousness of life. When we least expect something, we get it. And when we most wish for it, it is nowhere in sight. There is an old saying that goes like this: “be careful what you wish for.’ There is a reason for it and probably a reason too as to why you should not have everything you wish for. 


Taking stock

Why not look at the coming year as the year of spiritual enlightenment and change and do something we have never done before? Not merely handing a beggar twenty cents, but actually stopping the car and talking and listening to him? We have become such a self-absorbed lot that we hardly look at people on the street for fear that if we look we have to do something to help them. If we don’t look we can forget about it. There are several things we can do that won’t cost a cent but will bring a smile to someone’s face and even give him or her hope.


What you can do to help

·         Read a short story or two at the hospital for old people every Saturday afternoon and engage with them. They need to have people to talk to.

·         Take some magazines and books for hospitalized patients who have nothing to read. Reading is a good pastime and keeps them occupied.

·         Give parents who have children with special needs the night off by looking after the kids for two or three hours. 

·         Instead of celebrating Christmas with the family, roast a turkey and make all the trimmings and take it down to the shelter for the homeless. You can also buy socks and blankets for winter with money you were going to spend on things you don’t need. Have a great New Year!