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Volunteering
June 7th, 2009
Jacqui at Miss-Guided wrote yesterday about the importance of volunteering. As I commented earlier there, today in church one of our wardens (a youthful 80-something I think) was praised for being South Lanarkshire’s Volunteer of the Year 2009 for his work caring for people with Alzheimer’s (work he’s done following his own wife’s death in 1998). I chatted to him briefly after the service and he was so enthusiastic about the work he does, he absolutely loves it and it was actually really sobering to think how little I do at half his age. I have volunteered in the past, but right now am very focused on me, me, me – getting the thesis finished, finding work, making ends meet, the usual stuff – but this has inspired me to think about what I could do. I ought to look into giving blood again, as I’ve not done that for years. And when we’re settled wherever we end up, I’ll have to take a look at what’s around the place. It’s good to look beyond yourself/myself (I’m talking to myself, really).
test Filed under church, random | Tags: volunteering | Comments (3)3 Responses to “Volunteering”
Talking to yourself *can* be good for the community. Not widely acknowledged, I find
Must confess, never really thought of giving blood as coming into the category of volunteering, but I suppose it does, in a sense!
No, not just to yourself; a reminder to me as I have been feeling similar to as you describe. My prayers for you; please pray for me.
Don’t beat yourself up too much, the PhD is just in its nature a bit selfish and it pre-occupies your mind in a different way than a “normal” job… There’ll be different times again…