Being Part Of The Community
It’s springtime with flowers blooming, trees budding, birds singing, frogs croaking, fields being turned over for planting and more! It’s time to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and mingle with friends again, along with sports events, bike riding, hiking, picnics, and participating in a dozen other events happening in our communities.
While this is a wonderful idea, it isn’t always easy for some in our communities, to participate easily. The elderly are certainly in need of assistance from time to time from neighbors, especially when family is unable to help. But another ‘people group’ who often get left out, is the disabled community.
Nearly one in four people in the US has some kind of disability. Not all are obvious, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect their daily routines on a regular basis. But because of their disability, they are often excluded from community events, leisure activities and social relationships.
Social events are often held in a public building like a school, a community center, or even outside. While the doors are open to them, attending can be a problem due to transportation or even from a feeling of being unwelcome because of their disability. It’s sad to admit, but having a disability often comes with a stigma of not being good enough because of what they ‘can not’ do instead of accentuating what they can!
Community integration is also sometimes affected due to lack of support from their families or the community in general. Sometimes they are in need of assistive technologies or devices necessary to live a full life. And other times it has more to do with political influences and expectations in a given community.
We all want to be welcomed, accepted, even embraced by members of our community in whatever form it comes. This is no different from the desires of the disabled people group. They want to belong and know that they can be a student, employee, parent or in some other way be productive within the community they live. This gives life purpose.
We all need to do something productive to give a feeling of successfulness within our lives. Living life from ‘the sidelines’ as a spectator is depressing, unfulfilling, frustrating and sometimes even humiliating. No one wants to live like this.
Each community member should be observant and make an effort to be inclusive to those different than themselves. Diversity is a rising theme within our lives. Inclusion is one component in which we can all be proactive. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it does take a sense of responsibility, empathy, and understanding, if we are to be successful.
We are all given different measures of the qualities necessary, to be a friend and advocate, for those who need us. Perhaps over the coming days, weeks and even months, as the weather warms and people are out and about, we can observe someone who needs a friend, would love some help, and wants so much to be part of the community, but isn’t sure how to make it happen.
You could be that perfect person for your neighbor next door, across the street, at the park or even down the road a house or two. Have a happy week everyone, as you enjoy this wondrous season.
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