Helping & Being With

Shel Silverstein's poem "Helping" ends with the stanza And some kind of help is the kind of help That helping's all about And some kind of help is the kind of help We all can do without. (helping (?) in the kitchen!) For some reason, having an 11 month old Bean causes me to think of these words frequently. But particularly, for the last day, I've been pondering how she loves to "help" me fold the laundry. This little girl derives the greatest of delight from sitting on our bed when I dump out a full basket or two of clean laundry. She used to simply enjoy playing with the socks and dryer balls, but recently she's begun taking a more active role in "helping" -- namely, grabbing articles of clothing and throwing them over her shoulder and off the bed as quickly and enthusiastically as you can imagine. Yesterday Jason and I met with our pastor and were discussing various ministries, our involvement in them, and the disappointment of not see