I don’t normally post the comments we receive from our blog site but my friend Caleb (changed name on website for his privacy) asked that I do. This was his unedited comment after my recent post regarding my time spent with him:

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The lady that set me free:

Thank you for reading this, but please don’t stop, at least until I show you were and how she set me free, wanna see?

Read on…

When I first met my now great friend Jamie when she first accidentally showed up at my doorstep – and if you ask my eyes and feelings- I must say I had a very good impression or at least a hunch of something different about her, but because we get most of our judgments and reactions from our experiences and I didn’t meet or knew Jamie at all, she better not know what went on my mind then because it was simply conditioned to think this: oh no yet another robot, wait for the fake smile, after few seconds here it is a wide smile, I tried not to concentrate on what she discussed with the others and instead was waiting for something else to happen: here it is the bogus pray, we prayed but after we discussed my employment issues and she offered to help and left.

Your consciences leaves you with no choice but deeply appreciate and utterly respect a person who helps you, and I bet you know yourselves how immature and ugly you become (and it’s true) to react otherwise, you don’t want to be seen at that territory
only today I realize that at that day I was arrogant, and she didn’t at all deserve the treatment my mind projected on her, or on people like her.
Well of course after that day things changed, and like she said in this blog she one day invited me to talk and drink some coffee – quite a humble move from a classy lady in a “robotic” city like Memphis- but this is not my point;
Ladies and gentlemen Jamie, this young girl who helps others and invites them out to hear their problems did this so even though she HAS A LOT OF PROBLEMS, (I came to know as we opened up), but I have seen myself how life was soo hard on her in the past and right now, but yet I noticed she always was only concerned about others, I felt an urge to look around and find Ms life and punish her for how she treated Jamie.

I started thinking who am I to demand anything from her? I am an adventurer who wasted a lot of opportunities and was yet blessed to realize a dream and migrate to the states; I was always a bachelor single who was never even now responsible for anyone (not that this is wrong – I insist- ), but that people were helping me all along ever since I arrived here and even before, without me helping anyone.
Until this very moment Jamie never asked me back for anything, and I never offered any help or even a gift for her that she definitely deserves, and I don’t even think she noticed..
Jamie bought a classy wallet for me on Wednesday and then she wanted me to go shop for more, so I had to ask myself: at what mark on the scale should I stop demanding more and more from others, (be them family, friends, government or fill in the blank yourself), and disrespecting them for not giving us what they want?
Here is when I was set free .. When I realized that that mark on the scale was the very first one, remember when Jamie showed up on my doorstep, and smiled?

I should have been grateful …..
I don’t know you all but we all know Jamie, and I wrote this page today to urge all of us to think about Jamie, to thank her for what she is doing, to look after her and stand for her, ask her what she needs and whatever it is It shouldn’t be hard for all of us to provide .. after all she is just one standing for so many.

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Thank you Caleb! Your writing is beautiful and I appreciate your friendship too. We are still working on helping you connect to a good job.