Let the little children come to me...

I'm a bad mother.

And I don't even have any kids...unless you count the scaly yellow and black spotted one...well, I call her my baby.

She's a leopard gecko.

And I failed up until a few days ago to buy her food...for about the last three weeks.

Now, before you go calling PETA on me, she wasn't starving to death. She's a chunky little thing...and in all honesty, should probably be hibernating right now.

I wish she could talk...then I would have been more willing...guilted...but still...to hurry up and provide for her. Or even if she could make a sound at all...if she could whine...or cry...

It's easy to ignore something when it doesn't make a sound.

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I thought about this...my coworker was giving me grief about the same thing (my lizard lives in my office, you see) - and he said, 'I hope you're not a mother anytime soon' - to which I replied, 'yeah, but at least they make noise when they're hungry...'

There's a deeper meaning in all of this...it really is easy to ignore things when they don't make a sound...people in need, for instance. Silenced by pride, fear, or even a simple lack of someone to turn to. It's easy for us to ignore the person sitting next to us in the cubicle - in the seat behind us at the soccer game, in the pew next to us at church when we don't know what they need...or that they even have a need.

It's a little harder to ignore when we are asked to help. We feel guilty - or at least we should - when we know there is a need that should be filled...and we have the means to fill it and don't. Oh sure, we're good at turning our guilt off...but, it's still there. Mostly.

So, whose fault is it, then? It's 'their' fault, of course - why don't they just speak up and ask? Maybe, just maybe, the question should be, why aren't we listening more closely, paying more attention? Why don't we take time to look, to search, to offer...

We know how difficult it is to ask for help...

How hard it is to offer help...

How simple it is to overlook...

How much we need to offer...