Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Volunteering

My mom has a tender heart. She always has. She is good at so many things. One of the qualities I admire the most is her organizational skills. I love that she reorganizes my utensil drawer every time that she comes to my house. Or that she loves to fold the socks in the sock basket. But one quality of my mom's that I have always adored is her tenderness toward elderly people. She connects, she engages, and she loves them. I remember being somewhere around the age of 8-12 (those years are somewhat of a blur...... I think that is about the time that I had my Mrs. Brady haircut) and my mom was a part of the church ministry that went to the senior convalescent home. She was always had a heart for loving them.

Last November I was presented with an opportunity to volunteer for Salt Lake County delivering Meals on Wheels. It has been a wonderfully rewarding experience for me. I have met Donna, the sweet little blind lady who faithfully reads her braille National Geographic and can't wait to tell me about the Aborigines of Australia, and how much she would love to visit and "see" that country. Donna is 83 years old and has been blind since she was 2. I love her chuckle, it reminds me of my sweet grandma. Precious little Jerry passed away last week. He always had a smile and was excited about the weather, being the weather geek that I am, we loved to visit about it. I will miss him.

On my last MOW run, I was right in the middle of a project, but it was my day to deliver. I thought I could get out, get it done and get back to work in a record 30 minutes so that I could get back to my project. I was just about done with my route, two deliveries on Elgin Ave. I pulled up to Glen's house, ran in with a quick hello, smile, and asked how he was doing. He said "Fine, have you seen my tree?" All I could answer was "Golly, Glen, I rushed in so fast, I didn't see. But I will sure look on my way out!" This is Glen's tree.



The tree was so beautiful. I spent time just looking at it, and took a couple of pictures. I walked back to Glen's door, and showed him the pictures I took of his tree. I thanked him for making sure that I took time to look at his beautiful tree. Thanks Glen for bringing me perspective.

I thought that volunteering would help fill a need at the County and would be something that I could easily do. But what I have learned is that it really has helped me. I have learned to be grateful for my eyesight; to dream - - vividly; to take time to see the beauty of pink blossoms on a tree despite the pouring rain. This has been a beautiful opportunity. In some small way I may be helping these seniors, but in a larger way - - they are helping me.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. O, Donna, Glen, Betty, Cliff, Kathryn, and Jan.