I was clearing around Mum’s grave yesterday evening. I don’t tend to stand and pray but yesterday I felt compelled to say ‘thank you.’ I had three decisions to make in the past few weeks and was, as usual, dithering.
In the end I made the decisions in a hurry and two have worked out for the best, but it was due to a conversation I had with her in the previous week. I know it sounds as though I have lost the plot, visiting a grave and having a one sided conversation doesn’t sound like a sane choice, but…
It worked for me.
So to make a long story short, I was thanking her yesterday when it dawned on me that those are two words that are vanishing from our lives.
We never think of the trouble people go to on our behalf and say “thank you” to them.
My husband made a comment a while back, that he doesn’t like opening doors for younger women. The reason being they either think he is up to some evil trick, or they think it is demeaning to them, inferring they need a door to be opened. His question of – “Haven’t we gone too far?” – got me wondering again,
In the past I volunteered with delight for various groups that were looking for help but today if you volunteer you are required to go through a garda vetting (which is only right) but also you have to do a number of courses to allow you to volunteer. So here I am looking at unemployment once again and being left with a choice: I can retrain at 54 or volunteer.
The question is which role am I more capable of filling? I know that the second choice is probably the way to go but … with a string of courses already to my name I am now discovering that some wise man or woman has moved the goal posts and I will have to redo most of the courses, ( possibly trek over and back to England if I wish to volunteer with Ellie my collie cross ) if I wish to return to the role of volunteer.
Bewildering isn’t it?
Do you think that helping others has become too complicated?
decidinglybob 
No I don’t think it’s too complicated to help others. There is always the simple person-to-person help of a listening ear, cup of tea etc and while yes, I am possibly the most garda-vetted person in the universe at the moment because of various volunteer roles (scouts, nanowrimo, writing group, craft group, parents association) and previous paid roles, and I have had to do training for some it, I know it has all been immensely rewarding and worthwhile and more importantly maybe, just maybe helped some people.
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Thanks Grace,
Yes you have a valid point, I think I was simply overwhelmed with the amount of courses etc that it is necessary to keep up todate, I love volunteering but perhaps I should step back for a while and get PUBLISHED
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