“make this world a better place if you can…”

Reach out and touch someone…

We’ve all heard this song… Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Ashford and Simpson all have had versions of it over the years…However a little know trivia fact is that Ashford and Simpson actually wrote the song. Having said all of that, I think the song is best known for the AT&T commercial of the late 70’s. It was hugely successful and promoted connection with family. I’m guessing they wouldn’t be using this song or the tagline now…but back in the day it worked. And the sentiment of what the song projects, if you read the lyrics, is indeed touching(no pun intended).

“Reach out and touch
Somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
If you can”

Such simple words…but they have had a very long lasting impact. Most people of a certain age remember it well. I know I do. We had telephones hanging on our walls or sitting on tables then but we reached out and we called our loved ones with them. We weren’t all so busy then and a simple phone call to find out how their day was going was not out of the ordinary. Now we text and talk to people on social media. Have we lost touch with the people we care about? Have we lost touch with the world? Is this in fact all part of a larger problem?

I found out this week how one simple act of reaching out can have a huge impact on another person’s life, thus impacting my own. I hadn’t hear from a friend in about a month. She was always posting positive stories and always had positive things to say when I posted something on Facebook. So when I realized I hadn’t heard anything in awhile I looked up her profile and was surprised to see it had been taken down. I didn’t know what to do…I was afraid something terrible had happened to her. I didn’t have any contact info of hers but my intuition told me I needed to “reach out” to her.

All of the sudden I thought of Linkedin. Maybe she was on there. I checked and she was… I sent her a short message telling her I missed her positivity on FB and also just missed her and hoped she was ok!  That was all, just a short message. I never expected to get the message I got back. She wrote that she was so touched I had reached out and said that no one else had even bothered to check on her. She also said, ” a kind word can change and make a difference in some one’s day and in that one day…it could make a difference in someones life.”

One word, one call, one message…it is such a simple thing. We need to reach out more, we need to not be afraid of rejection. If we see someone looking sad, ask them if they are ok. If we don’t hear from someone in awhile call them, talk to them…check on them… If someone has lost a relative, a parent or child…don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid you don’t know what to say or that you will say the wrong thing. Even months and years later, these people who have lost still grieve. One word of kindness can change their life and can in turn change your own.

To say that this experience has changed me would be putting it mildly. It literally made me cry and touched my heart deeply. If you read my last post about my “word” for 2018 being LOVE and how I wanted to do things I loved and show more love to people I cared about. This…this right here is what life is all about. Caring about others enough to check on them. Caring about people we don’t even know that well. “Love” is truly the answer to the problems we have in the world today. I believe this….At the very least it would be a good place to start… What do you think?

“Take a little time out of your busy day
To give encouragement
To someone who’s lost the way
(Just try)
Or would I be talking to a stone
If I asked you
To share a problem that’s not your own
We can change things if we start giving”