Episode #8 – Broken Hearted

Dear Aimee,

I recently saw a news documentary about American families living in poverty.  People in this great country should not go to bed hungry or worrying if someone is going to attack or rob them during the night.  How can we help?  I am truly saddened.

Broken Hearted~Yukon, OK

Dear Friend,

Recently I had a very juxtaposed moment with a sweet friend of mine.  She had invited me to join her on a trip to New York City.  We were lounging one morning in our plush robes and slippers, enjoying a late breakfast of Eggs Benedict at the beautiful Plaza Hotel. It was a moment that will live in my memory until death, and maybe there after too.  However the conversation was not quite as indulgent.  We were very burdened with the ever so daunting question of how does one person make a difference concerning poverty.  Please know, dear reader, that I am in no way blind to the irony in the above scenario.  And I assure you that the solution we came up with on how to address the impoverished from a suite at the Plaza Hotel was not, “Let them eat cake!”  Our plan of action we came up with that day was not a grand socioeconomic solution, but an individual answer.  Because while our dear elected officials carry the burden of trying to figure out what to do on a national scale, there is a girl or boy within your reach that needs your help. Money, food, and clothes will meet their immediate needs, but what they desperately lack is someone to show them the way.  If you think back to the successes in your life, you could probably come up with a name or two of people who helped guide you, teach you, or simply believed in you.  I recently spoke with a friend that was on the other side of the poverty line as a child.  He told me that one of the most unhelpful things when he was young, poor, and neglected was a sweet Christian woman’s compassion.  Unfortunately his experience consisted only of pitiful looks and sympathetic smiles.  There was no action taken to try to improve his situation, only empty compassion. The ancient Hebrew term for compassion has its root in the word rechem which means “womb”.  Depicting the kind of love that a mother has for her unborn child.  The kind of love that nurtures a baby until it has reached his or her full potential. That’s the kind of compassion that brings lasting change and growth. The kind of change that can take a girl from an abusive and neglectful past and turn her into a loving and nurturing mother.  The kind of change that can take a boy who steals and deals and turn him into a  respectable and honest provider for his family.  Compassion is not a sad feeling or a sympathetic sentiment.  It’s a stirring that originates in the innermost core of our nature as a woman, and when put into practice it can have unparalleled effects on those around us.  It sounds like you, dear reader, are stirred with compassion.  So now is the time to do something.  Get active, get involved, follow your heart, and do all you can for your family, your friends, children, or strangers around you that so desperately need more than a smile and a twenty-dollar bill.  They need someone to nurture them on their way to growth and change.  Someone to show them some true compassion.

“Real Housewife of Western Oklahoma”

_The Daily Elk Citian_01 December 2011,

_The Cordell Beacon_30 November 2011