Safe haven?

I pick up strays. That´s part of who I am. It´t not something I do attentively or even intentionally, but still, I do it. I seem to have a need to be there for other people, regardless of if I know them or not. Helping total strangers is almost the best. They don´t even have to know my name. Helping elderly people carry their bags home from the store is often much appreciated, despite their initial fear of me mugging them. Other people I know better. I let them know I´m here for them when and if they need me. I sweep them in, give them a shoulder and when they are stronger, more secure on their feet again, I let them go.

I guess one could analyze why I do this, but it´s become such a big part of who I am that I seldom take the time to dwell upon it. It comes natural for me. It´s a fact. It happens. It does me a world of good and it seems to do the people I stumble upon the same. That suffices.

I have many friends. Friends I can lean on. Friends I know are there for me. Friends who in general like me for who I am. I feel the same way about them. They have nothing to do with the strays. The strays are usually people who drift by in my life just long enough for me to be able to give a lending hand, a shoulder to cry on or (which has happened) a good telling off before they drift out again. Seldom has one of them made such an impact in my life that he or she has stayed on to become a good, lasting friendship. And yet, they are somehow friends for life.

I sometimes think I should have become a member of the clergy - a woman of the cloth. No worries though, that though rushes past and vanishes even before the ridicule of it becomes obvious. Me - a nun? Not gonna happen! But the idea is probably not so crazy as one would initially think. Not if one remembers what role such a person had back in the day. I guess today that role has been taken over by psychiatrists, psychologists and other people who for some reason or another hold a position in which they talk to people in order to make them feel better, get to the roots of their ailments and help them take the next step. Maybe that is what I should have chosen to be?

But no. I think that would take the sense of meaningfulness away. For me, that is. Making it a profession, charging people to listen to their problems, worries and issues, would make it an everyday thing. It´d get old. It wouldn´t give me the feeling of achievement that it does today. I´d most likely feel like a charlatan who was conning them out of their hard earned pennies. Not for me. I´ll just keep doing it my way. I´ll pick up strays. I´ll help them alongside helping myself. Those two are closely entwined. They walk hand in hand. That´s the way for me.