Weakness - not so bad

Once again, I was reminded of the gift of being weak and how much our society is depriving us of by teaching us that being self-reliant is something for which to strive and be proud. During the last snow storm a decent sized branch fell from one of my trees in the backyard, landing on the neighbor’s fence. (It didn’t knock it down but put a noticeable dent in the top rail.) I had pulled it off the fence, but hadn’t had time to clean up the mess. Last week, we were blessed with a couple of warm days so I decided to clean up the yard a bit. When I got to the backyard, I realized that unbeknownst to me, someone had cut up and hauled away my branch. What a gift! (If the generous soul is reading this blog – thank you!) Illness forced me to “need” people. Before that, I really didn’t know how to accept help, didn’t really see any reason to accept it since technically I could do it on my own. Why be a burden??? But, over the past 3 years, I’ve realized that letting other people help allows me to see the beauty in their generosity – it allows them to be beautiful. It gives them an opportunity to share God’s love. Before cancer, I rarely saw the beauty of others because I never gave them a chance, I never “needed” them (or so I thought). Truth is, I’ve always needed it, but pride wouldn’t let me appreciate it. So obviously, I hate being “weak” and my goal is to regain my strength and be able to do things for myself. But, I honestly hope that I never regain so much “strength” that I forget how to accept another’s help.