Finding an Opportunity to Grow

Blogs take many shapes and fill many purposes. Mine is a personal commentary of living life. Unfolding meaning and events provide the action of a life. The fabric is another matter entirely.

What has significance at any moment adds to the fabric. The shape and context of a life is not intentional; mostly accidental. Something happens and reactions are registered. Some good, some not so good. Sometimes we make the best of things without thinking while other times we stumble around making an unholy mess of things.

Taking some time to think on the latter statement can prove helpful in personal growth.

Witness the difficult personality who always seems to poke fun at others, belittles their attempts to do the right thing, and undercut the efforts of others. This troubling person is a thorn in the side of most people in a group. Yet when the comments are dissected elements of value emerge. Perhaps a germ of a better idea is born? A different wrinkle on a specific problem area yields a creative solution that no one else has thought of. Brainstorming these ideas may help produce results desired by everyone in the group.

But getting the piece of gold out of the above circumstance is not easy! Someone has to be able and willing to brave the blistering negativity; calm the unsettled personality. Make friends again. Find the nuggets and attempt the task afresh.

Tedious work at times but necessary if you are working with volunteers.

Some volunteers are ever happy to donate time and effort. They just don’t want to think of process or task. They wish someone else to do that and then to tell them what to do. That way they spend time happily producing good things and feel a part of the whole.

Other volunteers have to be in control – of something. Maybe it is just a specific task but often it is of the entire project. If several of these are present at the same time, trouble can be expected. If only one appears he or she becomes a savior to take on the project entirely. A hero and champion of the good deed! Their demands and ideas are celebrated when the project concludes successfully.

If not that is another matter completely.

Volunteers. They bring smiles and hope and earnestness of purpose. They want good things to happen and wish to be a part of it. They keep boards and commissions running. They come up with ideas to serve others in areas of need. They raise funds for good causes. They celebrate the positive and soften the negative histories among us. They help us cross the street or find the right goods on the grocer’s shelf. They open doors – or hold them safely in strong winds – and allow us safe passage in a risky world.

Volunteers. They define communities in very special ways. In churches and clubs, government circles and service agencies, they provide the effort-power to make things happen.

Are we part of that community element? Are we serving others or being served? Or both? Einstein asked us to take action: “Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act.”

It pays to ponder this from time to time. What is my role?

April 17, 2013