It took all of one website and two phone calls for me to get involved in some volunteer work in my community for the upcoming Christmas month. I am not telling you this so you can help me polish off a Good Samaritan Award or offer me a pat on the back. I am sharing this because it feels really good to help, the thought of giving back to a city that without my meaning too, I have been taking parts of for years and offering very little in return. A city that without its knowing has managed to save my life. At my best and worst of days this city has provided me with the type of people who open doors for you, let you cut ahead of them in line, laugh with complete strangers and make small talk over sports teams and the always unpredictable weather.
These are the small fleeting moments that we all live for. These tiny excerpts of time and space that remind me of the reason I choose to take part in this in the first place, those momentary flashes of light, love and grace that are gone as quickly as they came. The reasons why happiness can bring on a tear, hugs can save a life and a smile can change my entire day. The moments that not only feed the depth of a starving soul, but the ones that remind me we are all internally connected, one and the same. As the layers are stripped away, the designer bags, the sports cars, the newest gadgets and the oldest thoughts we are all exactly the same. Searching for those simple moments, the amazing gifts of what will become our ten thousands joys in opposition of our ten thousand sorrows. The simple gifts that always seem to find me down and out, at my wits’ end and just in the nick of time.
So to anyone who has ever done something for a stranger out of the goodness of their heart, I express my undying gratitude to you. Not only have you encouraged me to offer the same, inspired me to be more kind, but you have also perhaps at some point, unbeknownst to you, completely made my day.
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