Tis the season to give - or not....

This past week, a co-worker “shattered the glass” around someone we both mutually know from our past. If you’ve never heard of this phrase, it is when someone points something out to you about another person that you never really noticed before – something huge that you’ll probably never really be able to get over or past. Well, my co-worker “shattered the glass” that this person had the choice to really help me in a certain situation – to make a huge difference, and purposely chose to turn their back. Now, I knew this to some extent, but since I had a long-standing relationship with this person who I really trusted/respected, I think I purposely tried to ignore the truth. To give them the benefit of the doubt. The hard part is that this person also acted like they were actually going to help me and specifically choose not to – for whatever reason (although I can guess).

So, now that the glass has been shattered around this person, it’s hard for me not to be angry about it. And of course now I’m wary of asking anyone for help ever again. But then, looking back on the year, I can’t help but reflect upon the help that people have given to me personally and to my family – most of the time without us even having to ask. Those who have given of their time and helped me network and find jobs (2 this year to be exact), helped with my son, helped us move twice, help us get acclimated to new places, helped us make new friends, vested time and interest in us, drove us to and from airports in MA and PA, provided us free places to say, given of their time listening, given advice, counseling, coaching, people who have invited us into their homes, given of their food/liquor, thrown us parties (going away/coming home), someone even helped clean our entire house this year for us prior to moving back in…

So moving forward, I’m going to focus on the good people in our lives. It’s hard enough to accept help when offered, but I think it’s even harder when we actually had to ask for it. And a thousand times harder when asked for, and purposely not helped. Or maybe it’s just a thousand times harder to swallow.

My general philosophy in life is that if someone asks me for help, I try to do everything in my power to help them – with the hopes that when I need it, the same favor would be returned to me (if not by them, then by someone else). You know, the whole karma thing.

So where am I going with all this?? Tis' the season to give. Be careful who you trust. And to everyone that’s helped us over the past year – I can only thank you and hope that I can somehow repay the favor. To those who purposely didn’t….well…you know who you are. What goes around comes around and karma can be a bitch!