Helping others really helps me the most.

At one of the lowest points in my life, a friend told me to try to help someone else. The small act of charity that I provided for someone else allowed me to stop worrying which wasnt helping my situation, and helped me to see that no matter my situation, I can always reach out to help someone else. That lesson lives on with me today...except I don't wait for the low points, I try to always be a help to others.



I have been blessed with some of the most amazing people in my life. Often when I was younger and being blessed, I don't thing I really saw it as the gift I do today. Those people who helped me get the lessons that have moved me closer to being the person I am and someone I truely like were dotted all along the map of my reality.



There were teachers when I was in school, friends while I was single, mentors as the many troubles presented challenges, and others who more or less came to simply save me from my own choices.



The low points have been many, being homeless because of a fire, being beyond broke, being unemployed or just dealing with the many missteps that wrong choices brought to the path.



But somewhere along the way, someone told me that the quickest way out of those moments of despair was to try and find someone else to help. I used to think that I would need a million dollars to make a difference or have some other earth shattering plan to help those in need. But the advice I was given was simple enough...just volunteer to help.



The first volunteer experience was to lift me out of a serious depression. My choices had left me alone, living with a very marginal income and single handedly trying to keep 4 kids unaffected by all the challenges that I was facing. I was sad for more than 24 hours everyday...it felt like I was sad enough for yesterday and tomorrow all in the present moment. I did not know that anyone could feel that sad. The things that I was finding out about my life, were just not pretty. In my effort to find work and to keep my mind off troubles, I was given an opportunity to enroll the youngest of the brood in a program called Headstart. Because of the income level and the fact that I was trying to find work and would need a place for him to have daycare once employment was found...this was a blessing to find that there was a program for single moms like myself.




In the process of visiting the center I was signed up for free child care while I was looking for work and for a reduced rate of care once I had found a job. They only ask that I serve on the parents council. I said sure...and asked what I would have to do. That was it, I found a purpose, busy work, some where my drive and ambition could get creative while I would be helping at the center. Within days, I was offered a job at the daycare...I was exstatic. The parents voted me to chair the parents council and we began to help more and more. New play ground equipment, parenting classes and work. Not only had I found a place to use all the skills I had developed in raising my four...I was offered more opportunities to learn, get an education in Early Childhood Development and a place to advance as I continued to learn. This little job quickly became a wondeful career, as I advanced and it also was the end of the depression that had lead me to seek someplace to help.



There have been many volunteer positions since then but the next big development would be after loosing a job. I volunteered at the Hurricane Resource Center in Burleson and this time even though I could have told myself I have every right to be depressed, none ever came. I have learned that no matter what my challenges are, answers always come, I simply need to stay busy, find my focus and wait for the opportunities to move past the low spot once again.

Problems will come, or as I choose to label them, the opportunities for me to create a new solution to my current situation. In each challenge, I am but a helping hand away from being on to the next adventure, if only I will be the one to reach out.




I continue to look for ways to serve, because I can, because I enjoy it, and because it makes things better for someone. I love that I have found a gving heart...I love my giving life.