I do love me some aphorism so let me start right out...forewarned is forearmed...

Possibly my favorite aphorism is "no good deed goes unpunished," because it's just soooo useful. We all want to help; I am no exception. But here's the thing...unless someone asks for your help, (outside, of course, of a situation where the person needing help is physically incapable of doing so), then the help is less about them and more about you and there's every chance, by interjecting yourself into a situation that would have best been left alone, that something will backfire on you.

Why does this happen? Because some people are meant to do some things by themselves. That's how we all learn, after all. Now the thing that has to be learned may very well just be the act of asking for help and if you interject, if you take over the asking, then you've just interrupted a lesson, as it were...and you may very well be punished for your efforts.

We all want to be compassionate, to be available to assist someone in need but it is often required that we be able to step back and give others their space to work things out for themselves.

Could be that you've already sowed the seeds for this reverberation and that, by now, the wave of karma is headed right for you, ready to sweep you off your feet, but it could also be that today you just may feel that irresistible urge, that "Oh for gods sake" feeling that propels you to say, all unbidden, "Can I help?"

Be wise; don't go there. Just don't go there.