When was the last time that you dedicated part of your day to serving others? Not like, while you’re at work, or at church or giving time to your family, but volunteered. Like at an established organization, or by giving to people you’d never met before of your time and talents?

I have to say it’s been a bit for me! I am thankful that I work for a company that promotes to the point of mandating volunteer work, but this time it was different for me.

Our church had a “Day of Service” where we went to the south side and helped a church gut their new building, and college students helped paint and organize a teen after-school-program organization’s building.

Since I’m preggers I wasn’t able to do much of the hard work, but I brought along my camera to document the people I go to church with, working.

Despite my lack of hard labor, I did feel the effects of it! It was super dusty and dirty at the first site. It’s a building right down on Cottage Grove and 63rd that used to be a billiard parlor and had a really famous pool table in it…all torn up.

It was pretty neat-0. (yeah, I went there, I said Neat-0. Don’t judge me)

I also had a life and death experience.

While I was taking a picture of some dudes ripping part of the ceiling off…

A peice of 4 x 4 with huge nails in it came flying down from the floors above. If I had been literally 2 inches north of where i was, those nails would have gone straight into my head. Instead it just barely scrapped my hand taking this picture. No major injuries.

Which is good because we realized, at my doctor’s appointment recently, that I haven’t had an updated Tetanus shot and you can’t get them while you’re pregnant. Yipes.

After this intensity, I strode on over (and by strode I obviously mean that a girl who had a car took me the 10 blocks thru Shadytown so I didn’t have to walk and potentially get murdered.) to where the college students hard at work.

Ok, well I got there at the tail end of all their hard work, but I’m sure it happened.

This was the whole group. Mostly ladies. But hard works non the less.

Either way, I feel like everyone took a little bit away with them. Something about giving of your time, sacrificing of yourself especially when it’s not convenient, makes the service that much better. And even if you’re grumbling and frustrated and get annoyed at fellow volunteers, by the end of the day you leave feeling refreshed and happy.

And the people you help out are also super appreciative!

So all this to say. Go out and do something for someone else. Help lay some tile, or deep clean a bathroom, or scrub some dishes. Or deal with that friend who might be slightly abrasive but needs a friend to just talk to.

You’ll be nicer. To that end it makes me want to start ending my blogs with the same thing Ellen says at the end of her shows:

Be Kind To One Another