Monday, February 27, 2012

Asking for Help: A Lesson in Humility

I'm not good at asking for help.

If there's anything I can do to help someone else, I'll do it in a heartbeat. Our homesteading life puts us in a place where we can often help and give to others, and I love that.

But moving up here to this new property is proving to be a lesson is asking for help, and learning to accept it graciously. From having a neighbor pull my van back up a hill, to having to ask others more experienced with this property how to irrigate it, or having to ask neighbors we just met to help us figure out how to haul water because the well wasn't pumping water. It's all things we'll figure out eventually - or mostly, anyway - but things we're going to need to learn. And the best way for us to learn is from someone who's got the experience.

But I hate having to depend on someone else for help! That's what community is about, right? But I like being the one helping, not the one asking. A lesson in humility, to be certain. We knew coming in that this new life was going to be one big Character Development lesson for all of us, and it's already starting. I look forward to being more established and experienced at this place, to be back in the place where we can offer our assistance, instead of the other way around.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hugs, Julie-- I hear you!!! We were in an extremely humbling position for a long time. Some things are still there, and some things we're able to sit on the giving end a bit more. It's intense, but good. Makes for a more humble giver if we've had to experience the humility of receiving. Receive from the One who designed the process.