Help

It has been an interesting week.  We had a breakup of something for this year and I realized something.  I have gone from the one expected to offer his chair to one who is offered a chair.  Ok I will still offer a chair, but I am not seen as the young fella sitting that could stand these days.
Oh well.  Comes a time. But there was one thing I saw in that scenario which I think is worthwhile to know.
A mate and I were talking yesterday about how so often it is hard for someone to accept help.  Particularly us guys.  We like to think we are independent and “I don’t need help.”  Yet the truth is something else.  I worked around the yard yesterday.  Not for a great deal of time but today I am bone weary.  A younger fella assisted me, and he was right as rain.  Just like I would have been once.  But no more. Not by choice but by a changing picture.
I am not one to decline offered help.  My thinking is, “let’s just get in and do this.”  What may be a hard slog for me is made easier by enthusiastic helpers.  Yet there are those who decline assistance based on what is really a false pride saying, “I can do this.”  Truth is they probably can, but they will pay a price for not accepting the help on offer.
At the breakup I was standing.  It arose because heaps turned up.  There were heaps of chairs but also heaps of people.  We were one chair short.  I had organized the event and was happy others were sitting and was ok standing.
But a young fella offered me his chair.  It was in that moment I realized something.  When someone offers something, I can be denying them a feel good moment if I decline the offer for illegitimate reasons. 
I’ll be honest in saying I did not need to sit but I did.  It was as much for him as it was for me.  By my sitting we both were encouraged.
That was the point for me.  Accepting a genuine offer of help often is good for two rather than just one.