I’m on a committee that recruits volunteers for committees. How do we get people excited about being on a committee? It seems like you can hear the sighs before the call, whether you are the caller or the called.
You don’t want to hand over a lead balloon- you want to hand over a balloon.
There can be a heaviness, a no I can’t do it I’m already too busy, or actually it simply sounds awful and I don’t want to sign up for awful as I need less of it in my life.
One time I was asked to do something and so I did it in a fun way that brought joy and I enjoyed the heck out of it and some others also did, while a few possibly did not.
We are going to miss sometimes, but we might as well have fun trying. It’s good to come into something joyfully, including a small element of surprise, invite spirit to co-create, which may not please every single person but it is less boring.
I leaned back and read a book in my 0-gravity chair on one of the sunny days in February, while listening to one side of a crow conversation. My sheets line dried in the breeze. Now it’s cold and raining/snowing again, just right for a slow bird walk early this morning.
This is what the bird walk sounded like:
I made up songs while driving my car to the VW garage. I was tired of being irritated about the frustration of repairs not working so I repaired my mindset. I have three versions, here is one:
I also sing at the gym. Not usually out loud, though I did with Kristi at the bench press because it just felt right to sing I AM WOMAN by Helen Reddy.
The other sense, smell, happened recently when I was gifted truffle butter. It was hand delivered, on foot, to my door and I know the dog that found the truffle. Truffles are not very photogenic, but they smell amazing. “They want to be eaten,” my friend told me. It’s how they spread and grow.
I thought you would have to smoosh or slice or dice them into the butter, but you don’t. You just have the butter and truffle hang out in close quarters, and together, they make a new combination.
I got help with my taxes. This is what a room sounds like when you get your taxes done with Tax-Aide volunteers. I found it oddly soothing:
I got the fastest helper so far and I told her exactly that, I said, “you are the fastest, you are the bullet train, whoosh”, while thinking: she knows what she’s doing. A second later she said, “I know what I’m doing.”
On the final checklist another person showed up to review the work. She looked at my charitable contributions and said these are very good but may not help you that much. Then she said, “still it’s good to have them there to be seen, to be on record, you know?” I wondered what she meant and asked, “who is going to see them? Who counts the good things?”
“Well, you’ll earn… soul points for sure.”
I’m looking at soul points differently now, less work and more joy.
Soul Points