Two birds. One stone.
I miss the people I worked with, but retirement has been even better than I expected. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t learn something or have an experience I don’t enjoy. And I have met most of the commitments I made to myself when starting this phase of my life.
When the blog began last summer I shared my desire to be of service to others. My plan was to take up to six months to determine how I wanted to do this given my tendency to jump into the next thing too quickly.
During this time I identified seven different organizations where I would potentially enjoy being involved. My goal was to narrow the list to one and then add another once I get comfortable. Factors I considered include how important the cause was to me; how well the experience would fit into my life; whether I could play a role of service not management or administration; and did I believe the organization had integrity relative to its mission. As has often been the case for me, as I explored the topic and opportunities the answer became self-evident.
A friend in Florida’s cancer recently returned. The outlook is not good and he recently became engaged with Hospice. I thought about people I have known, including my father, who received Hospice services. The two thoughts I had immediately were that I vividly remember how much the kindness of the Hospice team meant to my family and that I have never heard a criticism of this organization. As a result I reached out to the local Hospice organization to discuss volunteer opportunities.
At the beginning of February I began the process to become a Compassionate Care Volunteer. The role is to visit and assist patients and their families and caregivers. The process has been more involved than any job I ever pursued, but I am at the end and hope to get started in a few weeks. Uniquely, this volunteer role will allow me to both be of service and to honor family and friends who have benefited from similar services — hence “Two Birds. One Stone.”
I am genuinely excited, and a little nervous, about this role. I am also looking forward to golf season and the end of tax season. And I hope I am a much better volunteer than I am a golfer. I plan to work hard on both.
Until next time, be safe and take care.
Just saying: It has been awhile since I wrote about my friend “Ahnie.” He continues to travel the slow road to recovery from COVID and I will be writing about him and the road so far in the next two weeks.
