26 and counting...

It has been a rough couple of days. Work is busy.
Wait...Make that... WORK IS BUSY!!!

There were 26 families in for food today...today between 9:30 and 3:00...26 of them.
Oh and then there were the 5 others in for other things..gas money, (no I am not supposed to do that anymore and I did), the woman who needs beds for her kids...the woman who needs a bed for her bad back...the woman who needs help with her rent as she is almost two months behind and the woman who just...as she said...needed to hear someone nice and get a hug.

I could say i don't get paid enough but the truth is I often am fairly sure that I get paid too much.

I get paid for being kind and listening and giving food.

The giving food part is actually often the least of what we do.
Its the part I can track..I can tell you how many came in for food in August( 306 families) and by the way today one of the largest single days ever...I can tell you how many were families and how many were single and how many were what age.

However,I don't actually keep track of how many pep talks we give, how many tissues we hand out, how many people invite us into their lives, how many hugs we give or are given.
Those are the things that makes this a job worth doing and indeed makes it a job that surpasses all others for me.

I have looked around for other jobs. Jobs that pay more...that have benefits..you know that stuff.
I do not get paid a lot, more than the people who work with me but that's not saying much.

I have worked most of my life in Human Service fields and I am 56 with NO Pension..No retirement...and I would have no health insurance except I am married to a guy who has it.
That isn't great and I know to some that is a definite lack of "success".

People who are called to this sort of work do it despite the lack of money, despite the lack of long term security, despite the endlessness of the job, and despite what is often a lack of respect by those who have "real jobs" that make "real money".

Here's the thing...
We actually work on a hug a meter. You tell me how many CEO's of major companies get hugged during their day? Virtually none I bet.
Too bad so sad...
Would I like to be more financially secure at this point in my life? You bet.
Would I change anything that i have done up until this minute? Not really.
Sure If I could wave a magic wand people, all people, would get paid enough to live and live well.
Not rich necessarily..but well.
You would have money for food, for your home, for your family.
Nobody needs to roll in it. Personal opinion? Many of the problems today are due to unmitigated greed. People hoarding money and stuff. To what end? Who knows?

You really can't take it with you.

I worry often about "the state of the world"...I thinks that means I am getting old.

My dream? To live in a world where resources are shared and people, all people, look out for one another.

We aren't there yet.

Probably not in my lifetime...but who knows?

You see those of us who work in food pantries and the like, we are hopeless optimists. We actually believe that " the sun will come out tomorrow".
Oh,We have our moments where we whine, and falter, and grow weary and then...
then we get our hug a meter filled by someone and off we go again.

Feel free to join us..any food pantry, nursing home, literacy group,lunch program, senior center, boys and girls club, big brothers big sisters, the list is endless.

And indulge me a bit a moment of corniness...I have had a long couple of days...
You won't make money but you will get rich.