Can Do

On Friday, as my son and I made our way to his bus stop, we passed a neighbor taking her daughter to school. She was carrying a large open box, surely, I thought, some sort of "end of year" class treat. As I peeked into the box, however, I saw that it was not baked goods at all. Filling the box were containers upon containers of home-cooked food, and the woman and her daughter were headed to the supermarket to add bread and flowers to what seemed already a heavy load. They would be dropping the box, she said, with a family in which the mom had just had surgery. Through a signing up website, she and others were making sure that the dad and kids would be well fed each night as they handled the difficult situation.
 
I thought about how all I ever carried while getting my kids to school was their backpacks or a class treat. I thought about how I have a hard time just getting dinner on the the table for my own family some nights. And I thought about how moved I was to see someone who had not just recognized someone else's difficult situation, but had taken her time and energy (the box she carried for blocks seemed quite heavy) to make that situation a little better. While she couldn't change what the family was going through, she could make things just a little easier for them.
 
Mostly, I think about looking out for my own family. Probably that's what most of us do. Though we surely feel for other families' difficulties,  how often do we take that next step--carry that heavy box--to make another family's situation better? Yet, when I think about the little things that have helped me through situations big and small, I am grateful for people like that neighbor, who seemed to think nothing of the time or the schlep, and everything of what she was able to do to help.
 
It's not always about your resources-- time, money, or otherwise. Sometimes, helping make things just a little better is simply about seeing that you can. And then turning "can" into "do."