I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends* 6


It has been my great privilege/blessing/luck to have benefited, recently, from assistance from a number of friends.  I want to…I must  thank them.  Some of the help is too personal to describe, and, even though I have thanked them all privately, I want to go on record in this public space and say thanks.  (You know who you are.)


It is great to have positive and responsive people in your corner. I am proud that I have built a base of support and connection that can be called upon when needed.  (I had to trust that this base was there for me.  I had to open my mouth (and email) and ask for help.)


Among the recent help I got was:



  • Having a friend forwarded a part-time job to me that I’d never seen posted on any of the job sites I view regularly.  I applied and I got it.  (Thank you.)

  • Two friends gave such glowing recommendations that I was offered two part-time jobs within a week.  (Gracias)

  • Three other friends assisted me in surprising my Mom and step dad for their 75th and 81st birthdays.  (Merci beau coup.)

For most of my life, I have been the friend who notices a need and responds.  I rarely ask for help or admit that I need it.  Recently, I have learned to get over myself and reach out…gingerly.  After all, people can’t read your mind when you stay isolated and silent.


So, thank you, thank you, and thank you again. 


“I get by with a little help from my friends.”


*(I’ve reprinted the lyrics from this Beatles song below.  Please note, that while I don’t “get high with a little help from my friends” (and never have), the rest of the lyrics are apropos for this situation.)


With a Little Help from My Friends
(performed by The Beatles on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely hearts Club Band album 1967.  Lyricists: Paul McCartney & John Lennon)


What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me ?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.


Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends


What do I do when my love is away
(Does it worry you to be alone ?)
How do I feel by the end of the day,
(Are you sad because you’re on your own ?)


No, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends


Do you need anybody
I need somebody to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.


Would you believe in a love at first sight
Yes, I’m certain that it happens all the time
What do you see when you turn out the light
I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine.


Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends


Do you need anybody
I just need someone to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.


Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends


 


 


About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

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6 thoughts on “I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends*

  • Christina

    We are very alike in many ways, despite the generational difference- as you once told me. My mantra is, “If it’s within my power, I’ll do what I can.” I apply this mantra to everything in life, especially with friends. Sometimes we know how it feels to be in the shoes of a friend, so we can identify with a dilemma they may be facing. And other times, we have no clue what they are facing or how it makes them feel. But one feeling we all know is the relief felt when someone helps you out in a major way, and it’s even better when you never voiced a concern. I am a very private person and play many things close to the chest, so it’s hard for me to ask for help when I probably should. And as I get older, I realize I have fewer and fewer friends who are able to recognize my failure to cry, but the few who still can are near and dear to my heart. Indeed it there good friends who hear your cry and are able to rescue you. And there great friends who never hear a cry at all, they’re always there to catch you because they just know.

  • Jeff

    Friendship has been the ultimate saving grace in my life. Even now as I’m facing a big transition in my life and moving to Texas, I’m being supported by one of my friends who will let me become a part of her household. It’s going to make the move so much easier.

    I like what Lilly said about having wonderful friends means that you yourself are a wonderful friend. There’s a lot of truth in that.

  • Candelaria

    Your words are so true.  How great that you have a friend who will help you make this transition in your life!  Thanks for your comment and enjoy Texas!

  • SIMMONSFaith

    If you are in not good state and have got no money to move out from that point, you would have to receive the credit loans. Because it should aid you emphatically. I take auto loan every time I need and feel myself fine just because of this.