humanity

Humanity begins at home.

Hard Times=Desperate Measures
As I, a single mother waited in the waiting room at the Job and Family services office where I had been waiting for hours with my little girl to apply for some kind of help. I sat and watched as many people came in and waited with me for the next available social worker. One family that came in that day caught my attention. I had heard them ask the lady at the front desk if they were in the right place to recieve benefits for themselves and they're new baby, which they had in a stroller and they explained was only a week old. They were new parents and they were in need of the assistance they were looking for. However, this family lived on a county line and the previous office they had went to directed them to this office. The lady gave them forms to fill out but when they returned to her desk they despaired as she told them they were once again in the wrong office. They needed to go to another office. The new parents exclaimed they had already been there and they were sent here and they were running out of formula for their new infant. They needed help. With the mother hysterically crying and the father trying to console her, they pushed the stroller out the glass doors that led to the elevators. I had just received my tax return and had a couple hundred dollars left after paying my rent and other bills. I quickly gathered my things and ran out the glass doors and met them at the elevators. I asked them to please stop and explained that I had overheard the conversation that just occurred between them and the receptionist. I told them that I wanted to help to get them the formula they needed for their baby and some diapers and maybe some other things that could help them until they figured out where they needed to go. I do not drive due to medical reasons and these folks took a bus to get here. So I pulled out my checkbook and I wrote them a check for $150 dollars. I told them that I did not expect anything for this. All I wanted was for them to do it for someone else someday, kind of a pay-it-forward kind of deal. They asked if I wanted their information so they could pay me back or maybe text me a picture of the receipt of what they had bought. I said it was not necessary, the money was now in their hands and for their babies sake I believe they would do the right thing. I said my goodbyes and I returned to my waiting area. I hope one day the deed is passed along and they remember the day someone helped them and they do the same.
By Barbara Lee5 years ago in Families
Hometown Reclamation
When I first saw this prompt I balked at it. My hometown? Special? Yeah, okay. Despite my dismissal the topic kept settling in my mind; putting up photos, adding an accent chair, just making itself obnoxiously at home until I wrote my first draft of this. Except it wasn't this, at all, it was an incoherent rant about the illusion of hometown's mattering about how it's more about the intoxication of nostalgia than actual location, and, yes, there may be a little truth to that, it's not the whole truth.
By Christine Hollermann5 years ago in Families
Going to California..
“Come on, wake up, we gotta go..” My dad said, in a brisk, slightly annoyed tone. The same tone he had used with me literally thousands of times before. In countless, seemingly futile, attempts to rouse me from a near comatose state.
By Conor Spellane5 years ago in Families
From the right corner of my front room
If I can see the third set of hills on the right clearly it will be a good day. But it's cold! It was freezing during the night and a heavy frost is still on the cars. My home is in Edinburgh, Scotland and 10 minutes from Blackford Hill., the one on the left.
By Eric Sutherland5 years ago in Families
No one really tells you
When you're young, you look at what you think you will be like or who you want to be like or not be like. Then, as you get older you question. Am I making the right decisions? The right choices?
By Regina Lynn5 years ago in Families
Mothers' Love
It’s not like I had never hit rock bottom. I had been homeless off and on since I was 19. I usually hid out, couch surfed. Begged. This time it was different. I sat there with two babies in my arms confused to how I’d even gotten there. A month ago I was at my mom’s house laughing and getting to know her for the first time. The next thing I knew I had filed my taxes and my mother was dropping me off to my aunt’s house in Indiana. Her husband wasn’t happy with the new living arrangements. They were moving to Arizona the house was to be closed and given to the bank.
By Hollie Horton5 years ago in Families
Mother duck, fun maker, pied piper, peacemaker
It is the summer holidays, although I use the word summer loosely so far. And while I shouldn’t complain because much of the rest of the world is either being ruled by the tyrant King Covid or ruined by those other guys, when I say it’s the summer holidays I mean theirs not mine. It's the school holidays, and with my annual leave non-existent as an independent contractor I have already squeezed the juice out of 2 weeks I couldn’t really afford to take off unpaid over the most expensive and least relaxing time of the year known as Christmas. So along with many other working parents who’s eldest isn’t yet old enough to look after their youngest, I rejoin the circus with my PhD in juggling. I do have a partner, he is not their father and that is a story for another time, but step parents can often opt in and out with varying degrees of helpfulness, while I do the Lionesses’ share of the child rearing, house cleaning and cooking (another word I use loosely) and I also work, albeit part-time and yet somehow also constantly.
By Sun Moon5 years ago in Families
Following My Father
Mom took a job as camp nurse at Kennolyn Camp in the mountains above Soquel and Capitola near Santa Cruz. In exchange for her salary, I became a camper for the whole summer. From the mountaintop, a view extends over the Pacific Ocean.
By Caroni Lombard5 years ago in Families
I Don't Believe What You Believe
The cool thing is that we should believe different things because we are different people. My world view has been impacted by genetics, nurturing, indoctrination, and inundation. What I believe is the product of my surroundings and the messages I have heard. Even when we see the world from the same perspective, the sum of our experiences changes what we see, how we view it, why it is meaningful, and who is impacted. Over the decades, I have observed members of the same families, same traditions, or same faith groups who imagine that they hold the same beliefs. Still, when questioned, they demonstrate that the truth is more relative than absolute. Our access to information and facts and opinions are at once extraordinarily open and inordinately selective. Bias may be the primary principle in belief.
By Bob McInnis5 years ago in Families
Bittersweet Tomorrows
For those of you who have not read my previous articles, I had the scare of my life Christmas Eve- a possible breast cancer diagnosis. Tomorrow, I will be going in for my mammogram to check out the hard lumps which have grown at an alarmingly quick pace. Today I am feeling scared and worried, unable to anticipate the results of tomorrow. Throughout my life, one of the hardest lessons I have had to learn is letting go when I have no control over how something will turn out. In my search to connect with others who have experienced trauma or abuse in their lives, I have realized we all share many common characteristics, but the one that stands out the most is our inability to control the things around us and the affect it has on us. I have come to accept that I am unable to change the results of tomorrow-that is not something I control. What I can is to lean on those who will help me through it, whether I have a really long road fighting cancer, or it is simply a surgical procedure to fix the growth. I can make sure that my kids are provided for, with loving, caring people who will honor my wishes. I can surround myself with those who can help me or support us all through this, and draw a boundary for those who will not. In the past 2 weeks, I have come to find out who will truly be there to help me through this, the people who have shown up for me and been there. But I have also found the ones who will not, those who simply revealed how they truly feel towards my children and myself. I am not so worried about the diagnosis itself, as I know I could get through it-no matter how exhausting and daunting that particular journey may be. What has kept me awake with worry is one simple fact: How would it affect my children? With that, I decided to do everything I can-the things in my control- to make sure they have the best outcome possible (within my control). I no longer look at them wanting to cry because of the painful outcome that MAY be, but rather I hold on to them and make new memories, ones that will stand out and hold them up. We spend our days playing hide and seek, minecraft in real person time, Movie nights with mom (and all the fixings of course, which in our household includes pizza, twizzlers, and other snacks), and mattress surfing down the stairs. No matter the diagnosis tomorrow, I have realized that is what is truly the most important. Making new, beautiful memories with my children, that they will remember and carry with them. I should draw the distinction that with this, I have not thrown out the rules of my house that have always been there. Those remain in place, but I have simply made more time and been more involved with their playtime than I have recently. They are my rocks, my center in the universe that reassure me that everything in life will be alright. I can handle what comes our way. After all, I have survived much worse and so have they. Now it is our turn to be happy in life! That happiness is ours to seize, and develop, together. These beautiful gifts that I have been blessed with are the very reason I live and breathe. They are my everything! I know they will prove to be my strength tomorrow as well-no matter what I find out, I can get through it as long as I have them. Their beautiful smiles, the joy in their laughter, and seeing their faces when they say "I love you Mommy," throughout my day- these are the moments that design my road in life. This is true love at its finest. No love will ever be as strong or faithful as that of a mother and her child.
By marion scott5 years ago in Families
The Visitor
“Daddy, Daddy,” shouted my two-and-a-half-foot towhead. “What is it, little man?” “Mamaw and Papaw take me to see Big Boy!”
By Julia Hopkins5 years ago in Families
Inspiration for My First Book.
Book published by: Blueberry Illustration. Author with rights to the book: Lisa Jacovsky Disclosure: this post contains references to a published children’s book, Lets Talk! A story of Autism and Friendship, that may be found and purchased at the readers discretion at common book sellers or the authors website.
By Lisa Jacovsky 5 years ago in Families