This morning I had a bit of a sad and scary situation happen.

As I was driving to the store I noticed a very young boy (maybe 2-3 years old) running down the street through the intersection in front of my daughter and I. We watched him as we turned the corner & noticed a man jogging quickly behind him about 30 feet away.

I instantly pulled over to get closer to the young child and jumped out of the car. I yelled to the man & asked him if the little boy was his child. Confused, we both looked at each other, “No. I don’t know who he is. I just began to follow him after I noticed there was no adult with him,” he explained.

I walked over to the little boy & he turned away from me, screaming and crying, and began to run back toward the intersection. My daughter jumped out of the car and began to run after him. We both followed him into the street, trying to help cars move away and around him while we tried to coax him out of the busy intersection. He did not want to listen or follow anyone.

By this time, another car had pulled over & a few people were calling 911 while we all tried to coral this youngster out of the road and into safety. He just kept his whining.

After we got him out of the street, I began to ask him questions to maybe change his pattern, “How old are you, Buddy?” “Do you know your colors?” “What color is the sky?” and on and on with no distraction or reaction. Just quiet whining. We could not get anything out of him & as we tried to hold his hand, he pulled away.

We tried and tried to get this little child to calm down, to not be afraid and actually trust us a little. We got nothing.

Then, the police officer pulled up and approached us. He asked the little boy a couple of questions, and still nothing but endless tears. The officer reached out his hand and the little boy took it in his. The little boy then crawled into the officer’s arms and they began to walk down the sidewalk in the direction the little boy had come from.

 

This made me think about life & the tough situations that may come up. What makes a bad situation worse?? We run! We don’t face our fears. We get scared. We run! What makes us run? Anger, negative emotions, situations that we don’t like, shame, worry… FEAR based feelings.  Life can be like that sometimes. We may not want to deal with a situation and the easy way out would be to run to avoid the pain.

The little boy ran away from a situation, but then was left to his fears. Things got scary. He didn’t feel safe, so he just kept running… into the street, away from people who were trying to help, further from a safe place…

As adults, we can get into similar situations of fear and would rather run than face the shame, the people who want to help us, getting the help we need, etc.

Ask yourself—wouldn’t it be easier to just STOP!!

Stop running. Stop living in actions that are fear based (addiction, depression, avoidance, duality, negativity, anger, etc.).

The little boy would not say a word. He just cried and wouldn’t be calm. He resisted. He kept running, and he pushed away.

A few lessons from this:

-NO one can control anyone but themselves.

-No one can truly help unless someone wants and is willing to accept the help.

-If YOU are in personal trouble, want to avoid life, are living in fear, are acting on addictions to hide from emotions, STOP. Take a breath.

-Only YOU can find the place within that will lead you to feel safe and secure. No one can do it for you.

STOP!! Think about it.

-Only YOU can change where you are headed.

Just like the little boy–he ran and ran–into every street, every direction, away from help, and did not calm down until HE stopped and truly wanted help for himself. None of us could do anything until he was ready to take the officer’s hand and go in a different direction than where he was headed.

That is life. No one can do it for you. There are people who can try to help, but YOU have to make the choices, the directions, the steps that will take you to a better, safer place.

 

-PEACE, hope and LOVE to everyone who needs a hand to hold.  It is tough to see anyone struggle.

Have a beautiful day.  -H