How well do you know the truth of that statement? How often do you turn a cold shoulder, look the other way, or shunt a deaf ear when another is in need?

    Helen Keller may have been blind and deaf but as she often said, "If I could not see it, I could smell it." How many times do we act like we are blind and deaf to helping others in need? Or for that matter, mute? Do we secretly yearn for our own disabilities in order to shut out what we choose not to see or hear?

    The five senses: Sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. But what about the sixth sense? A power of perception seemingly independent of the five senses; keen intuition. Our intuition: a direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process with our immediate apprehension. How many of us go through life not living to the full potential of our senses when others are in need? Our intuition tells us something is wrong, our sight tells us something we should see, our ears tell us what we can be open to, our taste tells us what we have that others may not, our touch gives us opportunity, and our smell gives us direction to what is pleasing. But are we truly open to what our senses were made for? Are we selfishly using our senses for our own benefit and gain? Or do we use them for purposes other than our own?

    Our senses are the physiological methods of perception. Without our 5 senses we would be considered to have these inabilities: blindness, deafness, ageusia (inability to taste), anosmia (inability to smell), and Paresthesia (inability to feel anything or almost anything). How often do we take these senses for granted? How often do we choose to ignore what is right before our very eyes, ears, nose, hands, to feed our own mouths?

    Our sixth sense of intuition tells us exactly when we should put the other five to use in completing the circle of ourselves- a person who has the ability to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch others. Flora Edwards once said, "In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us."

    So perhaps the next time our intuition tells us that someone is in need, we will choose to open our eyes, open our ears, lend a touching hand, smell what is around us, and give others a taste of what they may so desperately need. Honore de Balzac once said, "Love is the poetry of the senses."

    "All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason." (Immanuel Kant) Each of us knows who around us is in need, who we may have been blind to, we all know who may need our lending hand but will we use our senses to aid us in the help we can provide?

    Blaise Pascal once said, "Faith indeed tells us what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them."

    Begin today by using not only your faith, but your six senses to be open to aiding and helping others in need this month.

Editor-in-Chief