I feel that God put us on this earth to care about each other. To love our neighbor as ourselves & to love them as He loves us. For me, when one of those other lives touches mine, then I take a active role in caring. When the lives don't touch mine, I still feel empathy for those whose lives are touched, but do not end up with the same emotional feeling as when their life touches mine.

When I was working in California, I took a late lunch & was driving away from work. An older man fell in the crosswalk getting up the curb, with an arm full of groceries, where I was stopped at the light. There were people around but no one went to him to help him up. I found a place to park my car & walked back, helped him up, & gathered up his groceries in the bag he was carrying & helped him home to his apartment. No one recognized that I did what I did. The man didn't even say thank you. A few days later, I went back to is apartment to see if he was ok. He didn't even recognize me. Who knows....maybe he was dealing with alzheimers or some kind of illness or who knows, maybe he'd had too much to drink.....but it didn't matter, he needed help to get up & get himself home. It wasn't for recognition or even thanks that I felt the need to help him as I would hope that someone might help me if I was in the same situation some day.

My first year at my new home here 2 years ago......4th of July. I had no idea what the noise was that I heard from inside my house. Somehow, I managed to throw on a sturdy pair of shoes & cell phone in hand, came across a car that had rolled & flipped, throwing several of the people & a dog out of the car & penning the boy driver into his seat. Immediate call to 911 got the rescue people out immediately which saved the life of the boy. While I was at it, I caught the dog that had also been in the car & was injured & got him to the vet for emergency surgery & I kept the dog for the 3 months while his girl owner was in the hospital & going through rehab because her back, hips & wrist had been broken. Being new to the community, I only knew a few people, but the community banded together helping me pay the vet bill for the dog. No recognition at all with that other than one of the EMT's recognized me at another accident that happened right in front of me on another road. I stopped to care for the people until the EMT's arrived at that accident also(much less serious accident with no one seriously injured).

I have always stuck up for the things that I knew were right & always confronted those who were abusing animals or people. I confronted several people about abusing their animals. Took one away & the other, I got in the way of the guy beating his dog & then called the ASPCA on him after he threatened to beat me up for interfering. I told him to bring it on because I would love to see him in jail.....he didn't touch me & stopped hitting the dog (in the college parking lot). I was glad that he finally showed some restraint because I really didn't want to get hit but I knew I had to take a stand.

I also know what it feel like when no one cares. I tried to get help when the home care person was abusing my Mother & myself, but everyone who wasn't actually there, seeing exactly what was going on denied that anything like that could possibly happen.....things like that just don't happen to people like my Mother......wrong!!!! Not only that, but they didn't want to get involved in something like that when asked to help. It actually made me feel angry toward those who would not step up & support who were supposed to be good friends of my Mother because the abusive person was associated with my Mothers boyfriend.

I support families physically & emotionally who are going through a loss if they have touched my life but do not physically support anyone who has not touched my life. I may send a sympathy note to let them know that I care but will not emotionally extend myself past that point even though I do emphasize with their feelings of grief.

As for the things that I feel are a problem in the country I live in, I take that personally because I know that the laws & things going on in one state can actually have a ripple effect across into other states. I feel that it's important to care for how our country is being run as we need to protect our freedom so again, I stand up & voice my opinion of the things that I feel make a difference.

I care to volunteer, to lend my hand (or my truck) be a helpful part of the community I live in. Not for the recognition, but because it makes me feel good to know that I am able to do some good that will mean a difference in some way to someone.

The interesting thing is that I have always felt that way toward others & have always wanted to help.....but it always seemed like when I needed help there was no one there until last year when I was having some financial problems because of a huge electric bill because of the crook that installed my heat pump system in my new home. I was shocked at how many wonderful people including PC stepped up to help along with several community groups & several churches. Several that I had never had any contact with before then. It was such an awesome feeling to know how much people really did care & how much help people I didn't even know were willing to extend themselves with.

Caring is an important part of keeping the community going. Feeling support from people you know is wonderful.....feeling support from people you don't know is a miracle that gives the heart a really warm fuzzy feeling that is hard to explain.

I care because I love, not for any reward or thanks it just makes me feel good inside to know that someone's life is better because I have been able to touch them or help in some way.