December 18, 2006
Topic: So much to be thankful for...
Today was a great example for me to see the opportunity we have to, in Ghandi's words, “be the change we want to see in the world”. Some of my best friends and I got together to build shelves and storage cubbies for a church that provides after-school care for children. My friends are a lot more talented at crafting things than I, so it's hard to gauge how much help I actually was; and most of them are in much better shape than me so by the end of it I was struggling to hide how tired I was.
It really dawned on me how in need people can be sometimes as we finished and I thought about what the lives the kids who benefited from this church might be like and what a blessing it is that this church provides them a dinner every night. What a difference one meal can make. It takes so much energy to escape poverty, every little positive difference is significant. I take so much of the opportunity and good fortunes that I have received for granted and on a good day I might have 70 percent of my life together. But most of all today helped me to see how so much of my own time and our societies time in general that is wasted on unimportant things.