WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE DOING GOOD

 

So what is the answer?  When bad things happen to good people doing good, it is debilitating, time consuming, and forces us to refocus on the negative in life and on disruptive people, rather than allowing us to do good things for those that need it the most.

 

I have pondered this over and over again.  Then I realized that sometimes the answers aren't everything. Do we really need to know why?  We want to...sure!  But does it help the situation or circumstance to really know why bad things happen to good people doing good.  I figure it is a waste of time. A huge waste of time!

 

I have most definitely had my unfair share of garbage heaped on me on numerous occasions, too numerous to count, when all I was trying to do was good.  I lost those I thought were friends for life.  I lost focus. I was close to exhaustion from battling,  But never once did I lose self confidence that I indeed was always doing the right thing for the right reasons. 

 

No, I didn't deserve the treatment, betrayal, and hatred aimed at me...but it was.  And so be it. It was, as they say, what it was! It wasn't as easy as these words might indicate.  I was as I like to say, 'bended, folded, stapled and mutilated' by multiple people.  And recovery and remembering how to stand up straight and tall and strong took a great while. But I always remembered, because what I was doing, and am doing, makes a huge difference.

 

It doesn't matter if everyone or even anyone agrees with me.  It simply matters that the person/people I am trying to help know.  And they do.  Sometimes they tell me, sometimes they write me heartfelt letters that leave me in tears.  Sometimes I receive in the mail a small handmade gift from their hearts to say thank you.  They understand, they care, their lives perhaps are made a bit better, their tears flow a little less, and days are not quite so horrible to live through.  I do this because I too know what it is like to be battered and abused and crawling on my knees, not asking for help, because I was too proud, too exhausted, or too embarrassed.

 

Then there are sometimes when you have no choice but to ask for help.  These times are most often come when you are humbled and times are rough and you just don't think you can do it anymore. 

 

 

For the entire time I have been writing this I have heard my four dogs pacing and pattering on the wooden floors in my house, moving from one room to another.  The noise was comforting because I knew they were there, close by, but it was also a bit tedious hearing them constantly in motion.  Then I realized they were trying to tell me something.  Something important.  So I got up and thought a break in the yard would help them.  As soon as we all came back inside it started to pour down rain, the skies darkened, and the smell in the air was fresh, comforting and quieting.  I stood standing at the back door watching the all too infrequent blessing of rain on a Texas summer day that my dogs were trying to tell me about. I inhaled and exhaled and with each breath remembered that with the bad there is also good.  And with the good there is also that which is bad.  Perhaps it is a matter of perception.  Perhaps our shoulders have to be wider and stronger and bolder, as we learn to let go of those people and things that inundate our lives and waste our time. 

 

Sometimes we become ill and need time off to rest and recover. A phone call came this afternoon from a young warrior asking how he could assist the warriors who repeatedly are being kicked out of facilities across the country with their certified service dogs.  This young man is not alone in his wanting to help.  What makes this story unique is that he had surgery this morning on his spine.  Yet he didn't let it stop him...just hours later he places a call to help his battle buddies....a call to do good! 

 

Maybe, just maybe, it is  in the picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and continuing moving forward with our mission that leaves others in our wake.  Perhaps it is our way of ignoring the bad and misplaced and uncomfortable in this world and continuing to do what is right and what is good and what we were placed here to do.  So if people don't agree, or appreciate or understand why you do what you do....they need to stop being an irritant and a stop light for those of us who choose to battle on, move forward, and help those people that need it the most.  One day they just might be one of those people and will understand.  In the meantime I choose to dust off the bad things that happen to me and keep on doing good.

 

The answers aren't everything!  What we do for others is!