It has been very heartwarming to see the outpouring of love and support for the victims of the tornadoes both in Joplin and in Oklahoma. In the small town of Cashion, near Piedmont they have several people volunteering with the clean up, volunteering with donations of clothing and food. Neighbors helping neighbors. Facebook and other social network mediums have made it very easy to stay abreast of whets happening and to participate and get the word out to many, many people in one easy “post”
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My mom used to tell me stories about the “old days” when she was a little girl back in the 30’s and neighbors would come to help out with harvesting, with food, with whatever a family needed. It was a reciprocal agreement. You helped and people helped you. It was a way of life more than a conscious choice. If a barn burned down or was blown away, people came for miles to re-build it. If someone died, the family didn’t have to cook for days because the neighbors made sure all the meals were provided.
It’s good to see that same spirit alive and well as we watch the efforts to help those in need. Tragedy does that. We all feel the helplessness, the what if it was me feeling that propels us to act.
Just doesn’t seem sometimes to carry over into everyday life. I have lived in the same neighborhood for 11 years now. I know my neighbor across the street pretty well because their son and my son were in the same grade at school. If I had something major come up, I could walk across the street and I know they would help me. I am acquainted with my neighbors to the left though I don’t even know their names. We share a fence. That’s about it. Though I could go there if I needed to use the phone or borrow an egg and they would help me. The rest of my neighbors I don’t know at all. Which is really sad in a way. I have never made the effort even to walk next door or across the street to introduce myself.
As a little girl, I lived in a wonderful neighborhood. All the neighbors knew each other and knew about each other. All the mothers watched out for all the kids. All the dads helped with the yard, the car troubles, the pet emergencies. The difference is probably that back then most mothers didn’t work. To be a working mother was not the norm. A working mom was almost a reflection on the man’s ability to provide for his family in a negative way. It’s amazing how much society has changed. Stay at home moms are rarer and rarer these days and many of them feel they are not respected because they aren’t working. Sad really and sometimes I think a lot of the problems we face as a society whether it be out of control kids in school,the drug problems, no respect for elders, etc. are rooted in the basic fact that no one is home anymore. Everyone is too busy to care.
At our hospice we are blessed to have an amazing team of Volunteers. These people give selflessly of their time and energy to make life a little brighter for those facing the end of their lives. Every time we have a banquet to honor their contribution and they speak of their experience, I realize that it is not only the patients that are being blessed. These volunteers receive so much in return. Most have jobs, families, obligations. They simply have made the time to be a part of helping someone else.
What a wonderful world it would be if every single person gave just a smidgeon of their free time to help others. I used to say I didn’t exercise because I didn’t have time. I do stay busy. I have a lot of “irons in the fire”. But what I found when I made the commitment to exercise and it became important to me that I did have the time, just not the want to. Its not a matter of finding the time, it’s a matter of making the time.
One man I met recently said he didn’t know why I was on the online dating sites because having talked to me and seeing how “active” I am it didn’t seem like to him I would have time to date. What I told him was, I make time for the people and things I care about. And I think that my actions would speak to that. Whether its people at work, or my family or at Church I think without exception if you asked someone they would tell you that is very true.
I can’t physically take off work to go and help in Cashion. I’d love to. I don’t have the finances to go to Honduras or Mexico or Africa on a mission trip. What I can do may be a small drop in the bucket compared to the need but that is a start. I got a thank you card thanking me for doing my comedy at the fundraiser last weekend. Funny, but I had just written one to them thanking them for allowing me to perform. I got as much out of it as it got out of me.
What I can do if volunteer my time and talent to fundraisers, I can clean out my closets and donate all those clothes and things I don’t need knowing that some people have nothing. I can buy a few extra things each week at the grocery store and donate to the food pantry. I can donate blood whenever there is a blood drive at Church. And I can challenge my friends to do the same. Together, we can make a difference.
My daily devotional book had a quote in todays reading from Corrie ten Boom that really spoke to me.
“The measure of a life is not its duration, but its donation.” Something to think about. Blessings!
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