Have you ever experienced a "Lean On Me" moment?

More like a half-decade than a moment. A terrified, badly abused girl who slowly blossomed into a healthy, confident loving young lady. With a bit of help,

Spring of last year, the area of the United States where I live underwent what the weather people called an “inland hurricane”. On the radar, it looked like a hurricane, and it rained sideways, but we live hundreds of mile north of the gulf of Mexico, and nowhere near a body of water that could whip that up. I was at school when it happened and I spent 3 hours huddled in a hallway with my students, until they finally let school out because the storm had moved through. After a 6-mile, hour-and-a-half drive home, I arrived at our house in the country to see the tree from the front yard puncturing the roof over our bedroom. I’m a city kid, and my husband was serving in Afghanistan, so I had not idea what to do. My next door neighbor called her nephew, whom I had never met, and he came over, took pictures for the insurance company, cut the tree limbs off the tree, yanked it out of the way, helped me to call the power company (our tree had managed to knock out power for the entire neighborhood, and climbed up on the roof to put a tarp up. He did all of this without asking for payment or thanks. Then he left and went home.
I had never experienced that kind of caring from a stranger, and I’m still grateful.

Many times! There are so many good people out there and I am lucky enough to have met alot of them:)
The last time I tried to help a girl brokedown and stuck in traffic,I almost got nailed by a car!LOL! One must be careful,you know… :)

I’m pretty much the last remaining thread of glue in many, many people’s lives.

We lean on and are leaned on all through life. This is the nature of friendship.

no, actually it is a lean on me moment most the time!

Here in rural America we both lean on each other and offer shoulders. I have been injured and so have friends of mine; the ice this winter was lethal.

We drive, fix food, do RX runs, take people to doctor’s appointments or PT and also simply out to lunch for some diversion.

Luckily this year I was one of the few still standing so I did a lot of helping out. It all evens out in the balance.

Well I don’t know if this counts, but there are two neighbor kids brother and sister one boy whom is 5 and a little girl whom is 7. The parents aren’t around much actually the dad is in Iraq (not military) he is a contractor. He hasn’t been to see them in over a year and from what I gather he doesn’t really care ( he has 4 other children with different women). Then there is the mother, who never takes them anywhere, hardly buys them new clothes, s way to busy talking on her cell phone and blabbing on Facebook. Anyways, I took it upon myself to take these kids along with my daughter who is also 5, to the park, I went out last week and bought them some new clothes and shoes, bought them all a season pass to our 6 Flags here, I take them all to my daughters soccer practice. Basically I’m showing those two what it’s like to have an involved adult in their life. In fact the first time I took the little boy to the park, he was litterally deathly afraid of the swing. After a few trips to the park and a couple times on the swing he is now jumping out of the swing and being a daredevil. Basically I took these kids under my wing and am showing them things the parents don’t and that is How to be a kid.

The other day, actually. Had a friend who started having a mini-meltdown at the coffee bar. We had to go for a walk while she got her ish out into the open (it turns gangrenous in the head), and pulled herself together a bit. She needed someone to listen to her for a while.

I’ve changed tires, given lifts, handed my coat, held hands, lent both shoulders, bought a drink, picked up and dusted off, had a bed, made a meal, spent the night, and offered an ear to more friends, strangers, acquaintances, exes, family members, co-workers, and neighbors than I can properly remember. And you know what I’ve discovered? It really doesn’t take much to help someone out but that the few minutes or hours you offer can make a world of difference to them.

For my own moment, I’ll pick one a question yesterday made me remember. It was the moment I finally “swallowed my pride” after a break up and knocked on her door. It made me realize all the pain I’d been feeling, all my self-hatred and anger, all my fear and emptiness was because I had convinced myself that she didn’t care and I had too much pride to actually ask and let her see how much I still wanted her in my life. Our relationship had changed but our love for each other hadn’t, I was just too stubborn to understand it until she opened that door.

My stars! I can’t count the people in my life who availed themselves, solely for my benefit, for no other reason than they could. Many untold hours they have counseled me, setting all else aside for just a little awhile. Many gave to me, and some gave all they had. These are the unselfish types; those who have passed, and those still here, who continue making a difference in a million tiny ways every day, going unnoticed but for a simple “thank you”. And they are happy with that, because that’s what kindness is.

Many are faceless to me now, and for that, I am truly sorry. I cannot remember them all, thier numbers vast. Kind faces who willingly, wholly played their part in a sea of living, breathing humanity. All of them are forever remembered somewhere in my mind, with no key to ever unlock the door. But I can feel their kindnesses inside me in the same place where my love resides. They stand together, the dead shoulder to shoulder with the living in my mind’s eye, continuing to encourage me in tiny voices when I am still, whispering to me “You can do this”.

Thier signatures are everywhere, all over my life. All have played a part, asking nothing in return. Behind every facet of me there is a real person who went out of thier way to help another human being. They are all a part of me because they created me. Their kindnesses were, and continue to be, a million points of light acting as a beacon, guiding me gently from trecherous shores, helping me to find my way home. The spirit requires no payment, no recognition, and that is a very good thing. You cannot repay this gift. Have I ever had a Lean On Me moment? Oh, yes.

As a police officer for many years, i have had numerous lean on me moments.

One in particular incident involved a drunk driver. i was given a call to investigate a man only wearing his underwear inside a Mapco Store. he was intoxicated. as i arrived, he was behind the wheel of his auto and backing out of his parking space. i stopped him and asked him to step out of his vehicle. the smell of alcohol was apparent. i ask this man to take a field sobriety test. he failed. as we were walking to my police car, the man collapsed in my arms. i gently laid him down on the pavement and called for an ambulance. he had no pulse. i began CPR. paramedics arrived in about 4 minutes. still not breathing, i slapped the man in the face twice and shouted “come on, you are not going to die. take a breath and breathe”. to my dismay, this he did. one deep breath and he was back to life. he grabbed my arm and said “thank you”.

He is alive and well today.

My junior year in high school, my friend’s mother (who lived hours away) was diagnosed with cancer and told she only had several years to live. My friend didn’t want to be alone and asked if I stayed with her, so I did.

A lot of my friends in high school came to me with their problems. Friends in the middle of their parent’s divorce, lots of self-harmers, drug abusers, friends in bad relationships, etc.

I never sought the help that I needed in high school much from anyone, but once I graduated and got over a difficult phase, I began opening up to the idea of letting my guard down and being open with certain people in my life. I depend on people to help me more now with my issues and emotions. A few in particular come to mind.

Vunessuh, good answer. too many people out there in the world are alone. always keep an open mind and open heart and share your problems with your friends. we all have our burdens to bare, so why not share? john

Thanks John . :)

Other than living with my parents while I got over the loss of two previous husbands, the one that stands out in my memory is when I flew to Colorado for my Dad’s funeral, a month after my Mom, I had to ask my current husband to please come out to give me some support when my sister became very un cooperative about the liquidation of the estate. He flew out for the weekend, even though it meant he had to take a lower grade in his class than he liked, due to the missed assignment.

You first

Many. I have wonderful friends who have been with me in times of need. Recently, my partner took time away from his job and family in order to nurse me after a surgery, little yucky things like burping me, washing my armpits, watching Barry Lyndon all the way through.

So many it’s difficult to pick one! Recently though, we moved to South Korea with our young son. I cannot readily put into words how hard it was to suddenly be so far away from friends and family with a new baby. The first week we arrived I didn’t really know what to do while my husband was at work, but I decided I should definitely just get out of the house and take a walk around. My son attracted a lot of attention, as we live in a small town where Westerners are still a novelty. Some high school students stopped us and asked us if they could take our picture. I smiled and agreed, and then off we went on our way. The next day we went out again, and bumped into the same high school students. They stopped us and in their broken English explained that their English teacher wanted to talk to us. One girl took out her mobile to call her teacher, then handed the phone to me. A friendly voice greeted me at the end of the line, and invited us to have tea with her immediately! I gratefully and enthusiastically agreed, and was so relieved to hear someone speak English. We met that afternoon, and have done so regularly since. She has helped us set up bank accounts, found a daycare for our son, arranged private classes for me to teach English to, introduced us to some great local shops and restaurants, helped us figure out how to pay our bills, helped us find a new apartment and helped us move into it; she even held my hand and cried with me through some tough times last year.

It got to the point that I felt our friendship had become so unbalanced, that I asked her what I could do to repay her for all her generosity. She told me she also met with similar kindness and generosity when she travelled abroad in the past, and helping us is her way of repaying all those who she ended up leaning on. I hope one day when we move back to the West, I get the opportunity to extend such kindness to lonesome travellers or strangers in town, and in that way repay her.

I have those all the time, we are a large family and always we are there for each other. One of us gets sick, we drop everything in our own lives and go. One of us has work which requires more hands, we show up pitch in and get it taken care of. My kids need something, anything, and I’m not around, they can walk into many doors and get help. Nothing too big or too small that we won’t help each other. There is nothing I have that I wouldn’t share.

When the kids were little there was a woman who would walk her kids to and from school everyday, she walked 8 miles round trip, for a total of 16 miles a day. She was very poor, very proud and terrified someone would try to take her children because she was just this side of destitute.

It took a few months, but slowly my sister gained enough of her trust, she let us give her a ride home. It turned into a fairly regular thing. She let me buy her some groceries once and she also accepted a few gifts we bought for the kids.