Practice Outrageous Giving!

I want to challenge each of you to find 1/2 day between now and New Year's and volunteer at a local charity.  You may serve food at the soup kitchen, read to the children at the battered women's shelter, ring the bell for Salvation Army, or serve after school snacks at the Boys and Girls club.  Hurry.  Right now, make the call.  Call your local charity, the one that tugs most at your own heart.  Tell them you want to help and you'll do whatever they need most.  Then just do it.  Maybe it will feel right enough that you'll want to add it to your list of things to do regularly in the new year.

STOP!  No fair writing a check.  You can do that too, but if you can afford to give financially, that's wonderful and you're blessed, but I'm talking about getting your hands dirty.  I'm talking about giving of yourself.  I'm talking about immersing yourself in the pain and trouble that other people are suffering.  Help a cause that you feel passionate about.  If you can't think of a charity that you can feel passionate about, shame on you.

This week-end one of my daughter's friends was severely battered by her husband.  It was not the first time, but as is always true in that vicious cycle, it was the worst.  He came very close to killing her but she was able to escape and run to my daughter's home.  The battered wife and her child are now safe, although the wife is in surgery as I write this and the child is suffering what I know to be post traumatic stress syndrome.  The batterer is out on bail but will almost surely spend several years in prison due to the severity of his assault and the fact that a weapon was used and a minor was present.

The domestic violence program is the charity nearest and dearest to my heart for reasons I'll explain someday in a different blog.  After the week-ends' events I am committed to doing more for that program.  I think it's time I stepped back into that world and offered my assistance.  It's been too easy to write those checks.  I think it's time for my hands to get dirty again.

In Carteret County, North Carolina, if you need help from abuse or if you'd like to volunteer at the Domestic Violence Shelter call:  252-393-6361.

God bless you all and have a safe and happy holiday.