Thankful Thursday #2

Last Thursday I let go of my son. Everything else will be anticlimactic. 

But with Thoreau's call to simplify echoing in my heart, I know there's still more to give up.

This week I'm choosing to give up one evening every week to do volunteer work. 

I browsed the web and explored various local organizations to find an interesting local volunteer opportunity and then chose to work with Literacy Volunteers, a program run out of a nearby library. After a five session training in April, I'll begin mentoring an adult who's learning to speak, read, or write English. 

I'm incredibly nervous -- this is so out of my comfort zone. 

But that's the whole point, isn't it? 

It's not about feeling comfortable.

We shouldn't be stuck in our comfortable 9-to-5, work-to-gym-to-home, eat-sleep-eat-work-eat-sleep ruts. Living isn't only about our comfort in this life. In fact, I've found that it's my discomforts in this life that keep me focused on the one to come.

We should be out there looking for ways to make other people's lives just a tad bit more comfortable so that maybe in the process, they will see something in our lives that will point them to the Life beyond.

Maybe it's just smiling at a stranger when stuck in traffic, a kind word of sympathy, paying for the person behind you at the toll booth, holding open a door, or giving up an evening to hang with a new friend.

There's always something you can do to make your corner of the world a little bit brighter.

By the way, I'd love to hear your ideas. Please share!