SACRIFICE...

With so much going on of late, I have to give pause. Things have been a whirlwind and life can be hectic for me and anyone of my friends and the people I call my family. People both inside my core need me as do the people outside. But there is something that I remember, “In the grand scheme of things, what we sacrifice for others sakes is more important than what we achieve for ourselves.”

It’s a big word… “sacrifice”. For many, it’s something that they can’t comprehend or refuse to do or acknowledge. It can be huge or small. It can be something like leaving nuts out of the chocolate chip cookies even though you like them, offering to do anything if someone needs it even though you aren’t asked, taking a phone call and listening to that family member even though you’d rather be watching the TV, sacrificing something financially for the love of a child, our time for a charity even though you are swamped or in writing, emailing or calling people in government to make sure people are provided decent health coverage and not left without.

Why? Compassion, caring, Love. We may never receive thanks, never hear I appreciate it or even an acknowledgement that what we may have done was worthwhile but knowing that we did it should be all the thanks we get.

That, in itself, is hard. Never receiving the thank you. A lot of times it’s taken for granted that you’ll do for someone; especially family with even the most simplistic things such as a phone call or an email.

But see, that’s fine. Because, when you can go to bed at night and sleep knowing that you did what was right, gave what you could, helped where you could or spoke up when necessary for someone who couldn’t, then you’ve done just what I said, “that you sacrificed for others sakes” and found that what you did was “more important than what you achieved for yourself.”

And you know what, sometime down the road; someone might do the same thing for you.