We’ve all had those days, those weeks, even those years. You know, the times when you felt like you had been left in the lost and found bin at the bus station. The times things seemed to be going wrong and no matter how hard you tried nothing you did made it better. So you sit, paralyzed about making another wrong move, and you wait. Hoping beyond hope that something miraculous will happen. And you wait.
Then the phone rings, you get a text, an email arrives or that person stops by to check in…and the paralyzing fear begins to fade. Just having someone who cares in your presence suddenly means that your hope was not in vain, something is about to give way and the clouds suddenly roll along. Someone who acknowledges your existence, listens, even if they are unable to provide a solution. Just them being there, hearing your turmoil and strife relieves the pressure and things are able to move. Sideways, up, down, even a minuscule amount of shift means that your hope was doing something while you waited.
No matter how bright, how independent, how brilliant or successful, wealthy, poor, beautiful or plain we are…we all need someone to notice us and listen. Carole King wrote these words over fifty years ago and the concept is still sound. There will be times when we need our soul lifted from that dreaded lost and found bin, and conversely someone we know may need that same exact lift. Being aware of the people in our lives – colleagues, family, friends, community members – all people need people. And all people have lost and found bin days. Tune in your radar and keep a watchful eye for the people in your world that just might need that lift today. No one should remain in that grungy bin for long, and you may just be the person to help them by listening which provides the shift, the lift and the beginning of forward momentum.
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