Speaking of which...

Happy Sunday, Lovelies! It was momentarily sunny and calm out; I think it's supposed to snow buckets tonight. I found I simply could not spend another Sunday holed up in my apartment (even if that's a very cozy option), and arranged for a ride on Thursday. I didn't ask for the same person to drive me home, assuring them I'd find some one else to do me that honor:) Thankfully, because of the community within my church and the amount of friends I've made within it, it was indeed not a problem to find a ride home after the service, though by the time I left, almost everyone else had gone! That's just the good fortune I've found in a small, tight-knit group of very kind-hearted people, because I went outside my comfort zone after Michael died. They say that life begins outside your comfort zone, AND they say that life begins with Jesus, so I guess I'm two for two. But this got me thinking about those in another community to which I didn't choose to belong--the Disabled community. A lot of them aren't as amazingly blessed as I to have been led somewhere full of people willing to help me get to and from ANYWHERE I need to go, not just the church building. What of those folks? What happens to those with no one to turn to--or who are just too proud to ask--for help? My Facebook birthday fundraiser (and the incredible number of times I've seen the commercial for St. Jude's children's hospital) convinced me that there are good, kind, generous people all over, with whom we share our lives every day, who would be only too happy to help anybody whose disability prevented them from getting around on these cold, snowy, icy, barely-salted streets. They only need to be shown how. Or asked. I am SO happy I asked for a ride to church this morning, rather than stubbornly hanging around the house, miserable, until the weather got decent enough to allow me to walk safely to and from church myself. Thank goodness. It's like that old song "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers (incidentally one of my all-time favorites)--"Please swallow your pride...for no one can fill those of your needs that you won't let show." And it's an important thing to remember; nobody can do it all, all the time. And considering how important our routines are to ALL humans, and what creatures of habit we are, I wish it was as easy for all members of the disabled community to find help as it is for me. Although, even I had to ASK for it. Therein lies the rub after all. You have to ask, or no one will know! It's not that they don't care or don't want to help...they just need to be shown how. How tragic it is that there are those with disabilities who literally can not ask for help when they need it. Those people especially NEED those of us who can make noise about a need to do so! We need to tell people FOR the non-verbal disabled exactly how they can best be of help, or when they are needed. So many people just don't bother, and they struggle on in silence. I used to be one of those people, never wanting to "make a fuss" when I could handle a situation however difficult. Thank goodness I've broken out of THAT cycle, and started speaking through this blog. That is ultimately the goal; to speak for those who can't, or still don't want to, but sure could use somebody to lean on.