As I wrote I would, I spent Friday evening volunteering at a homeless shelter. It wasn't my first time at a shelter (I wrote a newspaper story a few years ago about the new face of homelessness), but it was just as humbling the second time around.
There is no permanent shelter in this area, so the group that provides shelter throughout the cold months travels from church to church. As volunteers, it was our job to help prepare food, hand out blankets, clothes and toiletries and generally assist the shelter's guests with anything they needed. Just like the first time I visited a shelter, I was struck at the well-dressed and, for lack of a better word, normal looking people who came to stay.
Before dinner, the guests and volunteers formed a circle and said a prayer, and looking around, I truly couldn't tell one group from the other. Once again, it proves that it's not all that difficult to become homeless. For many people, all it would take is the loss of one paycheck. I'm lucky; I have my family and my husband's family, not to mention friends, who would help out. I left feeling very thankful for all I have, and thankful that there were so many volunteers at the shelter that night, too. As sad as it is to think about the bad in the world, it makes me even gladder to know there are so many good people who are working to help those in need.
Yesterday's good deed was far less interesting or important, but there are many more opportunities to do such a deed. I went to the bank, and, besides holding the door for a couple of gentlemen exiting just behind me, I waited for both of them to leave the parking lot before pulling my car out so as to avoid a jam and/or collision. And, in fact, everywhere I drove all day, I made it a point to relinquish the right-of-way to other drivers in parking lots.
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