Day 98 ❦ Return Home for Comfort

Day 98 ❦ Return Home for Comfort

The Gift: A Meal

It is fitting that one of the last acts during this 100 days is to serve a delicious meal to some friends who are a little down on their luck and are hungry. I have been pretty sad thinking about 100 Days of Giving coming to an end and have even considered extending the exercise, but will have to see what Day 100 brings...

The fact that people are hungry in the United States needs to be the focus of this post. People are hungry in the United States, and not simply children, adults are going hungry in the United States. You couldn't tell from seeing me that I have experienced that kind of hopeless hunger, but I have and perhaps that is why I am as “comfortably” situated as I am now.  I know I shouldn't be surprised because I have friends who as adults have known that kind of hunger, and so anyone my family knows who is hungry gets fed.

Tonight I am planning on celebrating the approaching end of the 100 Days exercise and all that I have learned., all that I have gained and the impact that both giving and receiving has had upon me. And so we eat, great home-cooked comfort food. And we feed, nurture and support our friends and ultimately ourselves through the giving.

❦ Home is wherever comfort waits.

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.

Day 71 ❦ Give What Comes Naturally

Day 71 ❦ Give What Comes Naturally

It might be because I was born an Italian Grandmother, but I love to feed people. The more the merrier and when I am not feeding people, I am wondering what my friends and family are eating. Sometimes I am wondering what they are eating because I cook vicariously and enjoy hearing what they are cooking and eating, and sometimes it is simply because I know that they are struggling and I like to figure out how I can support my friends and family who are hungry.

In an earlier post I talked about what it was like to be a child standing out in front of my house with all of my belongings on my back because we had just been evicted, but I have not talked about what it is like to be a child and be hungry, and I mean really hungry where a package of Starburst candies can be magically turned into 3 meals - enough to get me through an entire day, or turning an onion into lunch and dinner became a skill so we could go to bed with something in our stomachs. While I know we were not starving like the children I see in Africa or Nicaragua, that gnawing feeling that comes from having nothing to eat,