give something back

There are two things I will do to begin with.

I’m going to try to help other people to understand the spiritual truths that I am getting to know, to see if it might help them with their own lives.

I’m going to continue work on streamlining my posessions and giving it all to chairty shops.

I donated blood yesterday. After a bit of a rough start involving both arms and several attempts to find a vein, I lay there bleeding contentedly, finally, into the clear plastic bag, strains of Melissa Etheridge’s “Message to Myself” floating from the sound system. Out of nowhere, the brusque older man bleeding across from me imparted this nugget of wisdom: “Blood is like money. You can’t take it with you, so you might as well use it to enrich someone else’s life.” I heartily agree. This applies, I think, to so much of what we possess, have to offer, in this life. Simple but true. A glimmer of wisdom for a Friday, and a new PSA slogan for the American Red Cross! A message to myself, and to others….

While immersed in the Davist Manifesto, it occured to me just how self-indulgent many of my goals are. In some ways this makes sense in the scheme of things. I can better serve my community if I am whole. However, I feel compelled to give something back, and, aside from a well-turned ear toward my troubled friends and family, I can’t help but feeling relatively useless, or perhaps selfish, in this regard.

I am concerned about the world, I just don’t know how best to make a difference, or whether I am doing enough right now. Can I ever do ENOUGH? Maybe looking around at my abundances, my blessings, my benefits, is a good place to start? So I’ve started a list:

I have my health, so I should give time, money, or energy to an organization that helps those with medical problems.

I have a home and a bed, so I should help the homeless.

I have two beautiful, healthy children, so I should be an egg donor. Wait. I’m too old. Damn.

I have an education, so I should give my time, energy or money to help those who do not have a good education obtain one.

I have friends and family, so should I should give to those who have no one.

I have an immediate natural habitat filled with beauty and life, so I should give resources to help preserve the environment and those creatures within it.

That could be a start.

I am loved, so I should give love back to the world.

This guy, whom i don’t even know that well, gave me some study materials more than a year ago. I have no use of it for quite a long time now, but for some reason i fail to organize it together, give him a call and give it back.
This is one thing on my mind, that just shouldn’t be there. I want to give it back.