Helping

Evening Lovelies! I was just exulting in the simple things that come when allergens (which have gotten extremely high of late) keep you for venturing out. Last night I heard the song "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash on ye olde traditional plug-in radio, which I still have by my bed because I am old-fashioned as can be an unashamed:) But how long has it been since anyone heard "Ring of Fire" on the radio in the Midwest?! It has to be at least 50 years. And even then it was probably either played ironically, to say "isn't this cute? This is what the old folks listened to" or it was an old folks radio station:) And this evening I almost wasn't going to MAKE a proper dinner. My church friends fed me well this afternoon; I even had a Klondike bar for dessert BEFORE Sunday brunch, much to my delight. But I'm so pleased I was able to throw together a very simple, very saucy Asian noodle salad so I won't go to bed kind of wishing I'd had a bigger brunch! And now said Asian salad is chilling in the fridge, so I'll have a wonderful, cooling end to my favorite day of the week. The Klondike ice cream bars (a huge hit with kids AND adults) was in celebration of a week of teenagers living in our church, spending their days out in the hot sun doing home repair, or inside doing other volunteer work for people in need. These kids come from all over the country to be HERE, at my church! It blew my mind the first year I was blessed with their service as they repainted some "balding" spots on my deck, mowed the lawn, planted flowers, and I don't even remember what else--and it blows my mind NOW! In fact to my great surprise, today I learned that there are also people working with the team who are my age--it's not all young 'uns:) Tomorrow it'll be back to the grind for all of us; I've got a bunch of things to do that I (master procrastinator) have been putting off. And those poor volunteers will have to contend with an 80% chance of rain:( And actually, as they worked on my house, for at least part of the time I remember it storming SO violent, I told everyone on my deck to come right inside if it got too bad for them. Luckily, it didn't. And I guess now it's part of the tradition to have ONE day in their extremely full week when they get rained on hard. It beats the alternative of extremely sweltering hot, which is what last year was like, if memory serves. I just had to brag a little bit about these volunteers. They've meant so much to me! And now every year of course, when they return in ever-increasing numbers (about 25 more every year now) I think about them and how many more people they're helping to breathe a little easier by tackling some of the things that are just too hard for them. Home ownership is NOT easy! I'm just glad that winter I destroyed forever the hornets' nest that had been under the eave of my deck:( I never would have forgiven myself is somebody got stung. I'D gotten stung the previous summer... but I barely even minded. From what I read, hornets only sting if they feel threatened, and I felt bad that I'd made a hornet feel that way! Does that sound pathetic? Like, should I be mad that I got stung, and not worry why? Eh...that't the thing about this world...people are not kind or considerate enough. In my daily life, when people are unexpectedly considerate, or go out of their way to help me, I'm frequently taken aback--and I think we all are. Because kindness and consideration--indeed INTEGRITY are not the "default" anymore. Being selfish and egocentric, clawing our way to the top while shoving people out of the way is celebrated, not taking others with you, or lifting them up from your own lower position. In fact that's what is EXPECTED, and it's why the Disabled in this country have it so extremely hard. So many of them are not lucky enough to have advocates or loving family to help them. I ran into a handful yesterday, sheltering from the sun in a glass bus stop, who it seemed to me hardly had anybody in their lives, and certainly could hardly help themselves. One guy in particular followed me into a pharmacy, and proceeded to greet me as if I HADN'T just walked past him a minute ago, and he exclaiming "how ya doin' BABEH!". Of course this encounter had bothered me, and I avoided him for the rest of the time in the store...but then I realized that maybe he honestly didn't remember having just seen me? Not all disabilities are visible. Some aren't even obvious. Sometimes we just get annoyed..unless we think about it a minute and it dawns on us tht maybe we've been thinking wrong. Going back to the celebration today, it was so nice, and I should have felt absolutely honored to have cold, delicious ice cream AND hot coffee, there among church friends who've helped me so much and continue to help me in a million ways. But I admit I was a little distracted by one tiny detail. Balloons! The presence of balloons in the Narthex made me almost want to turn my walker around and go home the minute I stepped inside:( I have one more ivisible difficulty--I'm very allergic to Latex. It's mostly just an irritating little consideration I've carried with me my whole life, and it used to be a much bigger problem before the world wised up and discovered alternatives! But sometimes just breathing balloons in, knowing they're there--can be enough to make my eyes water and my tongue swell! I had to leave the headquarters of a local politician where I was volunteering on the phones--the balloons leftover from a party THERE were sending their "devil dust" into the air and making it hard for me to even concentrate. Sooooo....long story short, I was very pleased (though I heard the odd complaint) that we had our ice cream outside! And therein lies another fundamental problem with so much of society. WE're TOO visually communicative, and if we can't see it or sense it, it's not a problem. But there are invisible problems EVERYWHERE. I just thank God I have the ability to voice them, because that's another thing--verbal communication is the only thing so many people understand! But non-verbal communication can be MUCH more powerful. If only people would pay attention to what is said "in the silences", so to speak. When a person doesn't SAY something, but they ACT a certain way, that communicates their true feelings. Sometimes people with mental or emotional disabilities isn't able to put into words what's wrong or what might help...so you have to look at how they behave. Is someone sweating? Are they irritable? Are they looking around them aimlessly and acting impatient? Maybe they need a water break. Does a person look tired or sound horse? Maybe they're going through a harder time at home than you realize. I could go on and on. We need to be there for each other these days, especially if somebody can't voice it. The shortest answer is action.