fish and independance

you know that proverb that says" you can give a man a fish and feed him for one day, or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime" ?

well, personally i think that it may have been penned by some game and wildlife board...but also, possibly by a very good caseworker.

i am not a caseworker.
i am sometimes an interpreter.
i am sometimes an advocate.
and i hate it, but i am always a bleeding heart.

and last night my bleeding heart got my into some trouble and practically stranded in a city over an hour away. i let a person i had been "help" take advantage of me, again.

i wasn't teaching the person that i was "helping" how to fish, or rather how to be an responsible adult who properly uses the resources available to her. i had just kept giving "fish" to her, and she just kept taking them.

i had not given this woman the opportunity to know what it's like to have her own voice, to win her own battles, to have her own justice.

i am going to have to revisit how much "help" i can be at this point, to this person.
right now, that looks like letting them go.

and i have to rethink how to teach others to fish, so that they no longer "need" me....so that become invisible enough to let others fight for their own voice, their own justice.

and that they may be confidant enough to "feed themselves" for a lifetime.....