I finished a blue and purple daisy chain necklace. It has one boo-boo in it but otherwise is very pretty. So delicate. This is a progress photo.
I don't know what to volunteer for! Look at me. Look at me! I don't know about this whole thing. It has me worried. It never works out for me. I have not found what God wants me to do. Supposedly he's given me at least one gift and talent. I don't know what it is. I can bead alone and I love to bead alone or with my sister or with a few ladies at the beading store. But teaching people? Teaching Zumba to the 10 to 15 year-olds stunk. I was so excited to share the joy of exercising and fitness and dance and they were not interested at all. Well, a few were. Five out of 23 were interested and their faces were a pure delight to me.
She couldn't decide what to volunteer herself for. I told her to think of what she likes to do or what she liked at the Catholic church that we could do here. She said she likes retreats. Oh Lord. So tomorrow she's going to come over and we're going to brainstorm volunteer ideas. I'm going to suggest she think of something, hello?, SMALLER, that she could do because she suggested she and I plan a retreat together. I've never even been to a retreat before. Ever.
Yikes.
4 comments:
Um, help in the kitchen? Serve tea and coffee? Do the flowers for the church? Help with photocopying? Re-do the noticeboard and throw out all the old notices? Greet visitors at the door? I don't know. I'm no good at this type of thing and usually get roped into doing something that I'm no good at because I can't say NO.
BTW, don't judge yourself on how the teens reacted or seemed to react. Working with teens today must be one of the most demoralising and humiliating experiences around. They appreciate absolutely nothing that you do and go around with a total look of indifference - or worse, disdain - on their faces the whole time. If you want to teach Zumba at church, then find some ladies who want to learn and teach them. Don't be put off by what has happened with the teens who, it seems to me, were forced into doing it anyway (and there's nothing worse than a teen who has been forced to do something).
Guess what. What a coincidence you wrote. We went to a volunteer meeting. We will be called Servant Leaders instead of volunteers. And I'm signed up to serve coffee once a month. And I signed up to greet people! I greeted a bunch of people today in church and I smiled and make a little small talk. Purty good, huh? Someone is already doing flowers. A lady offered to do it because she loves doing it anyways.
And pastor's wife at the meeting even mentioned the teens and how they can be insolent. So true. You're right. And I ought not take it personally. I'm kinda almost over it. Mostly it hurt my feelings and then it made me mad. Yes, them being forced to do it was not a good start at all. I have to move on, eh.
I'm reading your comment to my husband because you described the experience of working with the teens to a tee. It really hurt my heart at first, ya know, because I wanted to do a good job and do good for the kids.
I know it hurt. I've been there this past year and it seems that regardless of the hours of preparation and sacrifice that have gone into something, it's not appreciated. But that's teens. They're very self-centred and have not the maturity to rise above their own circumstances. They think: "I don't want to be here and I'm going to make sure everyone knows" rather than, "Okay, this isn't my first choice but let's see if we can make the most of it." Of course there are always exceptions but that seems to be a general rule these days. Sad but true. And it's not entirely their fault either. Too many parents allow them to get away with such behaviour.
Hope your heart heals soon. And good on you for greeting visitors and serving coffee. That's great!
Post a Comment