Volunteering

Here we are on day two of our time away.  Weird start to the day.  I get up real early.  It is just what I do.  I often have a sleep later in the day and I get my quota of hours.  This morning I got up and read the clock wrong.  I thought it was Four (when I get up) but thought “I’m going back to bed.”  After a while I thought I had better get up.  I was surprised how dark it was.  It was like the dead of night.  I thought I would look at the clock again.  It was Three am.  Doh!
It is rainy.  Sorta suites us though.  We have our trikes and want to do some things but right now veging and reading is attractive.  The weather is perfect for that.
We are going to a book shop later.  That is real dangerous for us.  We tend to get books!  I have a few books I would like to get but I looked up the bookstore web site and only one is available here.  So I guess I will be picking up one.
I am really enjoying what I am reading at the moment.  It is called Pathways.  I am very much into that.  Merril commented when she saw the title that it was something that was big on my agenda.  I can only read little bits at a time though.  It is so meaty.
It is all about volunteering.  I guess that is right up my alley.  I was chosen as the Queensland Volunteer of the Year in Table Tennis one year.  I guess it is a passion of mine.  What I am finding is that the same problem is faced in a number of pursuits.  Kids and older people get involved.  Young married couples are absent.  Sure there are a few but considering how many there are out there, it is not many.
What is being talked about at the moment is ensuring people are not taken for granted.  A phycologist has said most people will put up with some hard stuff as long as they know at least one person listens.
I just need to look at what I want.  I am happy to help build someone else’s kingdom as long as what I am doing is not in isolation but seen as a together thing.  I am not interested in being chosen and left alone.  I need to feel I am an integral part in an ongoing and inclusive way.  I am an important part.  That is true for any organization.  There may be a great many roles and the absence of it happening has ramifications.
In a way it does not matter if the leader is not a hands-on caring type - as long as they find someone who is.  It is the only way an organization can grow.  If no one does it the organization has only one destiny and that is it’s demise or at best being niche.  People may join, but they will leave too.  Many reasons for leaving are legitimate (work commitments, change of city) but often the leaving is the result of feeling I do not matter.  For an organization to grow that scenario must be avoided at all costs.
I do not write about this stuff often.  I guess because it is close to my heart and what is close to the heart needs to be handled with care.
It is still raining.  The bookstore opens in an hour.  We will be there.