Spring officially began a week ago.

Between rain and a local water main project, it seems that mud is everywhere. It is impossible to look around and not think about messes or the messiness of life.

Politics and social issues, personal challenges, are occupying so many of my thoughts.

Yet… maybe it’s the warmer weather or extra hours of daylight, but I’ve noticed having a lighter step as I walked around my neighborhood this week.

I kept hearing a voice inside of me repeat the phrase, ”Help is on the way.”  As if folded into my very breathing, I kept hearing “Help is on the way.”

I know President Biden has been invoking these words, but hearing the message from an internal source as well as from a press conference clip on the nightly news has had a big effect on me.

Programmed to seek out irony, I suppose, my imagination conjured up grainy black and white images from movies set in the Old West. I kept thinking about cries to “Send in the cavalry” as a response to needing help. I had to laugh.

It’s a natural impulse, I suppose, to want  to be rescued.

But that’s not exactly what I determined to be going on, why my spirit feels more buoyant.

There’s a lot of history behind the call to “Send the cavalry.”

The Cavalry originally referred to armed troops that traveled on horseback, able to dismount and perform hand-to-hand combat if called upon.

These troops still exist. Their mobility, not any specific form of transportation, determines how they can be deployed.

I’m expanding my understanding of how help can come to me. I’ve directly experienced the value of putting a request out into the world, through social media, and seeing what comes back.

I might have to spend time sorting out information that I can’t use immediately, but I’ve gotten help from people I don’t even know. I’ve been connected to the desire of strangers to provide support.

Sometimes, someone might step forward because of having special expertise that they like to use. Or maybe someone will offer to help based on us both knowing the same person.

Sometimes, someone might be compelled to reach out simply because my cry or call or, more likely, post requesting help obviously comes from a deep place.

When I’ve asked for help to spread the word about an event I’m sponsoring or an investigation I’m conducting into a new market, several people have introduced me to their circle. Others have responded with recommendations on how they’ve handled a similar challenge.

Maybe the most surprising thing about getting help at the right time is making the first step looking inside. Getting help when needed is not about getting rescued. It’s not about sending in the cavalry.

It’s about formulating the right questions and assessing the situation. I ask myself what can someone else help me do and what do I need to do myself. I work on formulating exactly what I’d like someone else to do, giving them a better chance to determine if they can fulfill my request.

I’ve realized that it matters that I believe in the value of what I want to accomplish. And I need to believe that reaching a goal is possible.

What a difference hope makes; believing that problems can be solved and that possibilities can be realized.

Not to be rescued by mobile troops, or any politician, for that matter, the words have taken root in my soul. “Help is on the way.”

I don’t want to invest my emotions in the idea of being rescued. I’m looking at re-framing my understanding. The world is not conspiring against me. There is a lot of progress I can manage myself.

Truly believing that help is on the way is no small thing.