Deep Thoughts: Things that make me feel good

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Things that make me feel good

There are a few things that I do that make me feel good about being alive. They don't happen often enough, but when they do happen, I live off the memories for a long time. I collected two good memories today.

My wife returned from an appointment this morning to tell me the local Boys and Girls club of Buena Park was having a recycling drive. She asked me to take up our cans. I’ve been slowly working my way through a mass of cans for a few weeks now. When I started the task, I had 40 bags waiting to be crushed. I had a system. Crush the cans until I fill a 30 gallon plastic trash can, then go collect my $30. In the process I was cleaning out the garage too.

I grabbed the eight remaining bags and drove to the Boys and Girls club. I was greeted by five enthusiastic children who competed with each other to carry the sticky bags. I was overwhelmed with their sense of joy. The cans were important to them. They were grateful for the donation. It made me feel good. There were smile all around. It also made me add the club to my list of charities. They do good work.

The second thing I did today was volunteer to work at a US Post Office food drive collecting donations for the Second Harvest food bank of Orange County. I worked with a team of 6 people from my wife’s employer to fill a semi-trailer with donations brought in by postal workers from the local community. We had to transfer food from postal trucks up to a loading dock and then up into a semi-trailer. It was backbreaking work. After three hours, I could barley lift my arms. But it felt good and the people involved were great. I’m ready to do it all over again (after I recover).

My day was great. On top of these great memories, I won two skins in a great game of disc golf at sunrise. it is evening now, and I’m moving through a six-pack of Dos Equis at a fairly good clip . I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.

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