How My Friends Demonstrated Nobility by Coming to My Aid as Someone With Illness

Throughout our life we witness and experience a multitude of human behaviors that define who we are as a species, as individuals. Whatever we believe and no matter how many honorable values we hold dear and deem worthy, it is our actions that really matter.

Even if we look and sound fine most of the time – except in the confinement that is our life – most of us living with a serious chronic illness are faced with the fact that we cannot manage even a basic quality of life without the help of family, friends and our community. While we struggle just to get by and confront the ignorance of unhelpful physicians year after year, we are sometimes told to be more self-reliant, to be positive and to not use our illness to make others feel guilty for not doing something they don’t feel like doing. Wouldn’t we all like to be more accommodating about our illness!

Thankfully, there are people who genuinely understand that pain is pain and that it is not necessary to experience the same sorrows to find a helpful way to respond when someone is hurting. Could it be that compassion for their own imperfections and vulnerabilities enables them to feel the same for somebody else’s? Have you ever known someone who actually behaves in a compassionate way in everyday life? Not just once in a while but as naturally as breathing? Most of them don’t make the headlines; they simply go about their business with an open heart.

Lat year, I was blessed to be on the receiving end of the actions of such people and I must say that I am in awe. I witnessed generosity given without reserve, without pity, only for the simple satisfaction of knowing that another person’s life was made better because of generously un-calculated actions. These people who came to my aid did so without my asking anything more than advice. They just knew I needed what they could give and their gift of themselves and their skill was phenomenal.

As I witnessed them in action, I was struck with one thought: This is what nobility looks like. Noble souls do not expect gratitude or compliments and it is with humility that they receive any sign of admiration. They are not saints, just people like you and me with their own set of ups and downs, priorities and challenges. And so, I want to take this opportunity to honor my friends. A Fabulous Woman and her Noble Knight who have given countless hours of hard labor to help my husband/caretaker and I to be safe and comfortable in our humble abode. What can I say!? Can words ever suffice? The most heartfelt thank you is not nearly enough but I will say this:

Dear Sophie and Michel, blessings to you and your loved ones. May a Good Samaritan always be close-by when you need one. You always had a friend in me and nothing will ever change that. I cannot return this tremendous favor by any other way than to strive to be happy because I know that is what you really want. Making people happy brings you joy. You exemplify that compassion is the essence of nobility and you have inspired me! I am so grateful to call you my friends.

The next time we say we really understand someone’s pain, how about making that thought perfectly clear and letting our actions do the talking? Let’s lend a hand, without judgment of any kind, when a person in need asks for our help. Better still, offer it and follow through, just like other generous friends did for me, in spite of their own physical limitations. Compassion is extremely potent, it uplifts everyone involved. I am grateful for the kindness of those of you who have helped me over the years; I couldn’t have made it this far without your precious support.

I sincerely wish that each of us be touched by the compassion of caring people. May we also find our own unique way of bringing more compassion into our little corner of the world, even if it is simply by listening and offering a kind word of encouragement.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Imagine that!

See you on the path of healing and beyond,

Marianne