Hello friends,
Acts of service are a tricky balance. We can confuse meddling in others’ affairs for helping, and we can over-give to things at the expense of personal wellness. This week’s reading offers inspiration for creating a sustainable approach to our desires to help and be helped.
DAY
A shaft of sunlight highlights a fir tree branch as it reaches out to hold the Growing Up flag in this winter scene. In the process of growing up, we are always being helped. For the first few years of our lives, someone feeds and clothes us. Eventually, we grow to become helpers ourselves. Children naturally want to help, and the helping allows them to grow new skills that they will carry to adulthood.
What is calling you to lend a hand? Your participation in assisting others helps you grow into the person you will become. Release judgment of the ways you are called to help, for your artistic creations and wild concoctions might be just the thing that helps inspire another.
Alternatively, you may need help with something. Don’t be afraid to ask. By asking, you allow another to serve you, just as you so generously serve others—and give them the gift of growth and satisfaction they might receive by helping you.
NIGHT
The expansive view from the City Vista site looks south to San Francisco and Oakland, east to Mount Diablo, and west to the Pacific Ocean. Vistas like these offer opportunities to reflect on our lives as we absorb the view of land, buildings, roads, water, and sky. Amidst the constant flow of wind, weather, light, plant growth, animal movements, and geological motions beneath the earth's surface, the view is never the same—and neither are we.
In the Night position following the Lend a Hand card, the Reflection Point card invites you to reflect on how you have been helping and being helped, and how things have changed. You may be invited to do something new and need to consider how it fits in. You may have a desire to serve the world differently from the way you once did. Or you may just simply want to celebrate how the things you contributed to have panned out.
The two-color Simplify flag is a reminder to simplify your approach to how you serve in a way that meets the circumstances at hand. For me, the simplest approach is listening to my heart as much as my head, and noticing what excites and intrigues me.
May you be called to help in ways that serve your heart.
May your natural gifts serve to touch the hearts and minds of others.
We help by helping ourselves
Sometimes the Lend a Hand card comes up in my daily readings when I’m frustrated with my job. It reminds me that I’m there to help, and gives me proactive ideas. When I receive it on weekends, it can nudge me toward my creative projects. Even if what I work on doesn’t pan out that day, creative satisfaction helps me feel whole. And sometimes I just need to call my mother!
Have an excellent week!
Lee Ann
P.S. Here’s a wonderful song to inspire how you lend a hand.
Thanks Lee Ann,
I am enjoying your offerings.
Jade J