Day 78 ❦ Sometimes Even a Small Gift Can Make Difference

Day 78 ❦ Sometimes Even a Small Gift Can Make Difference

The Gift: Personal Care Items for the Emergency Shelf

As you may have ascertained, I get to travel a lot. Often I have the privilege of traveling to crazy great places and have experiences with which I could fill books. But the fun and adventure comes at a price. There are always trade-offs right? The problem with traveling for work is that oftentimes, the trade-offs are not so apparent to someone who has just asked me where I have been lately. I am not going to spend any time listing the trade-offs for so many reasons, I just want there to be a stated awareness that the work that accompanies the travel can be difficult, draining and downright dirty.

I am fortunate that most of the times I am traveling for work I am staying in hotels - although the times I get to stay in people’s homes are special; hotels give me the respite that I need to recharge for another full-board day of work the next day. I will learn later in my life why I need that recharging time but for now, during this exercise, 100 Days of Giving,  I have not yet learned why I need my alone time so desperately. When I get back to my room I may just sit for an hour or so trying to clear my mind and refresh my thoughts for the next day. I always have visions of sitting and writing or reading, but the truth is that my brain is usually spent and even drawing a bath seems like it would take too much brain power.



When I am on the road working, I often take the time to work intensively, putting in 10 - 14 hour days because it just makes sense to maximize my time whenever I am brought somewhere to work. I do schedule in one or two fun activities as a way of decompressing, but usually stay in work process mode until the job is completed. Last year, I spent one third of the year traveling on work related projects. One hundred and twelve days spent away from home.

What one hundred and twelve days in hotels means for One Hundred Days of Giving is that I have accumulated buckets full of shampoo, conditioner, soap and a variety of other toiletries. Yes I collect them each day and while I understand the environmental impact of the small bottles, etc... I am also aware that I have paid for these amenities (or someone has) and will have them refilled each day. Sometimes I really like the lotion or shampoo and get really excited that I have found something that I can use when I get home, sometimes, I just really like the place in which I am staying or visiting and like the little reminder of how well I was treated while staying in a particular place. But it is not until today that I realize the value of what I have to someone else, in fact, to many, many other people.

I was at a meeting today and the discussion revolved around the impact of the State of Minnesota cutbacks on families. Story after story was shared by organizations serving the marginalized people in our community and most alarmingly, the scope and increase in the marginalized.  The urgent needs were shifting from not having food for a week, to not having food for the day. Children were going hungry in our community right now, and the public discourse was about how we needed to cut taxes even more so a few could have more money, while our children go hungry. Unfortunately, as history will show, children got hurt the most in this debate.

But during this meeting, my ears perked up when the Director of the Red Cross announced that the personal care shelves had recently been wiped out because of the floods and the families in poverty had no access to shampoo, or soap. Yipee! My giving opportunity has once again revealed itself! After the meeting I arrange a time to deliver the 5 boxes of personal care items I have collected over the year and once again get to feel like today, I made a difference, perhaps a small difference, but it helped to relieve the crazy frustration that I carried away from the meeting.

 ❦ Sometimes Even a Small Gift Can Make Difference



Day 79 ❦