Stage 3: Help Me, Please

At every major turning point in my life,

someone has always shown up to nudge me toward my calling. Without fail, a consultant, colleague, friend, or spouse has stepped in to help me resolve the inner conflict of staying with something that no longer makes sense.

One of my earliest memories of this was with my friend Dennis. After graduating college—having played the game, earned my degree with honors—I felt no desire to settle into a corporate job. What I really wanted was to hitchhike out west. Dennis, an experienced hitchhiker himself, gave me a few tips and said, Have a blast. That was all the encouragement I needed. Off I went for several months. By the time I returned, I was ready to start my career—not in a traditional job, but as a social entrepreneur.

At every major decision point, there was an ally. Joe pointed me toward philanthropic foundations. Judy gave me my first grant award, opening the door to more funding. Gary offered me a whole new perspective on how to change organizations to truly help families out of poverty. Mike gave me the push to drop what I was doing and start Circles. Communities raised more than $200M to use Circles to support families in making and working their plans. Time and again, people have appeared, offering the support I needed to step into something new. 

I sometimes think I should make a T-shirt that says, Help Me, Please. It’s a universal truth—we all need help when stepping into the unknown. To maintain our serenity and integrity, we must act on our inner calling. But resistance is part of the process. So is the aid that comes from the outside.

"Help Me, Please"

Acrylic painting by Scott C. Miller

To purchase prints please contact [email protected] 

“Epiphanies are Learned” (Associated with ‘Help Me Please’)

I kept travelling until I found myself

on a large, sun-bleached cliff

I dangled my legs over the edge

and looked out at the sea and desert

that I must danger and travel

to arrive at that promised land.

Too far to go all by myself,

and I can’t ask friends to risk

losing a life, they love

for just the possibility

of my own soul’s rest.

Who do I turn to?

What can I learn?

I call to you, ancestors

Why does my soul burn?

The soft sound of shifting sands

trodden by leather boots

rode the wind to my ear.

I turned around and saw behind me

a wizened old man walking out of the haze.

 

I stood to confront him

and shouted right through him,

“Have you come to answer my prayers?

In silence he walked right up to me,

and glared right in my eyes

with such severity

It caused epiphany!

 

I saw my own reflection in them,

and there was nothing special to see.

Like an animal nesting and resting

without ever trying to be!

I was disheveled and broken,

where I was, life was away from me.

 

“Will you live like this?

Or will you live like me?”

He ran to the cliff and jumped.

Instead of dropping

he soared

on the wings of the wind

and carried himself.

 

And suddenly from within me a warmth glowed

I too leapt from the cliff and with the wind flowed!