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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Supportive thoughts

Päivämies-verkkolehti
Vieraskieliset / In-english
2.4.2019 6.58

Juttua muokattu:

1.1. 12:22
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I have mo­ved back to my child­hood home. I am sit­ting at the kitc­hen win­dow with my mot­her. My mot­her says:

– This yard has been a good place for my child­ren and grandc­hild­ren to play. Through this win­dow I could al­wa­ys see what they were doing.

– I so­me­ti­mes even for­get what I am doing and just watch my child­ren. I think about all of them to­get­her and each of them se­pa­ra­te­ly. I have so­me­ti­mes won­de­red if the child­ren can feel that I am watc­hing them and thin­king sup­por­ti­ve thoughts. Can we en­cou­ra­ge so­me­o­ne just by thin­king about them? I ask my mot­her.

– I be­lie­ve we can. I am sure yo­ur child­ren feel that you want to sup­port and help them and will al­wa­ys de­fend them, mot­her res­ponds.

An ar­ti­san I know says that she we­a­ves warm thoughts in­to her rugs. She says she can re­mem­ber her friends by gi­ving them such rugs, and she al­so gi­ves them away as pre­sents to less fa­mi­li­ar pe­op­le. The loom I in­he­ri­ted from my mot­her is stac­ked away be­hind a lot of stuff in the sto­re­room, so I ap­p­ly this we­a­ver’s ide­as to my dai­ly cho­res. I bake warm thoughts in­to din­ner rol­ls and cin­na­mon buns. I rep­la­ce a bro­ken zip to show that I care. I cut hair to help un­bur­den the per­son’s mind.

Then I have dif­fi­cult ti­mes in my own life. Il­l­nes­ses and tri­als dep­le­te my re­sour­ces comp­le­te­ly. Can­cer me­di­ca­ti­on ta­kes my hair wit­hout un­bur­de­ning my mind. I have very few warm and sup­por­ti­ve thoughts. I qui­et­ly ask my­self: Does any­bo­dy see that I would need sup­port? Could I ac­cept com­pas­si­on from so­me­o­ne el­se?

Ye­ars go by. My sen­si­bi­li­ty is gra­du­al­ly being res­to­red; I be­gin to feel em­pat­hy to­ward ot­her pe­op­le again. When sit­ting at ser­vi­ces, I may find my­self thin­king about the pe­op­le in front of me. I won­der how they are get­ting on. Do they feel my em­pat­he­tic thoughts? Can I sup­port and en­cou­ra­ge them through by thin­king now that I lack the strength and the ca­pa­bi­li­ty to do anyt­hing el­se? Could lo­ving one’s neigh­bors take such spe­ci­al forms? Can I be a lo­ving neigh­bor by sup­por­ting ot­her pe­op­le with my thoughts?

I de­ci­de to try. I send a sup­port to you...

...fat­her who have come to ser­vi­ces with the school kids; ma­y­be the mot­her is at home with a child who is ill;

...lady in the kitc­hen crew who fret about ha­ving for­got­ten that pac­ka­ge of chee­se;

...brot­her cal­led to ser­ve to­night and yo­ur fa­mi­ly;

...we­a­ry-loo­king ser­vi­ce gu­est who have come to ser­vi­ces nee­ding com­fort and strengt­he­ning of yo­ur faith.

One Sun­day I ma­na­ge to speak out my sup­por­ti­ve thought to the mot­her of a big fa­mi­ly. With te­ars in her ey­es she says:

– It is so com­for­ting to hear that so­me­o­ne ca­res.

Du­ring my mot­her’s last spring we are sit­ting in her kitc­hen. My mot­her says:

– My task in life has been to care. I have ta­ken care of child­ren, ani­mals, and an el­der. For some time now I have been ta­ken care of my­self. I have found that the har­dest task. I have been a de­man­ding and dis­sa­tis­fied per­son. But even so, I think it is im­por­tant to take care of one­self and to re­gard one­self as de­ser­ving care. One should be pa­tient and en­cou­ra­ging with one­self.

En­cou­ra­ged by my mot­her, I send a sup­por­ti­ve thought to my­self: Lii­sa, you are good enough the way you are. Car­ried and sup­por­ted by this thought, I ag­ree to write this blog for Päi­vä­mies.

Text: Lii­sa Huus­ko

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal Fin­nish blog post here.

29.3.2024

Jeesus huusi kovalla äänellä: ”Isä, sinun käsiisi minä uskon henkeni.” Tämän sanottuaan hän henkäisi viimeisen kerran. Luuk. 23:46

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