Thanks (for the) Giving

I wanted this blog to be strictly for my writing, but today was just so fascinating I couldn't tell it from any other form or verse but my own. My family and loved ones are two-thousand miles away from me, which made this holiday hard to think about. To take my mind off things my roommate and I decided to volunteer at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica. I used to do these kind of things all the time back home and it felt so refreshing to go back and do something so selfless. Especially when the homeless double the amount back from and it was breathtaking seeing how many people were fed, clothed and talked to. I mean I was working strictly on folding clothes, but watching all these people pick up just the bare essentials made me think about all the time I go after something I want versus what I need. I gave up the last bit of grocery money I had this week to feed people, because I don't need it. I never needed it. I was unpacking belts and was going to take them to the belt table and before I even got there 15 belts were ripped from my hands...as if the belt was going to hold up the pieces of their life together for another year. As human beings it's so easy to do something like this and then just go back to our daily lives without even questioning why we fall back to old habits so quickly. After we left, my roommate and I rented bikes and biked down the Santa Monica Shoreline, just like that we were back to our daily lives, biking out the thoughts of our days, later to return to a roof over our heads and food in the fridge. What a crazy world we live in and it just keeps spinning, no matter how special a day may seem in the calendar.

I am at a loss for words...I helped clothe, feed and make a signifigant difference instead of eating to fullfill myself, I indulged in fullfilling a need in my soul. What a world, what a world.