About "Doing the Thing" on April 11th, 2012

Good morning, world! Greetings and salutations and welcome (back?) to this hidden little section of cyberspace. My husband and I woke up within minutes of one another today and have been chatting over coffee for a good while so far; I've got my hair up in a ponytail due to the high winds anticipated today and left the door to the laundry room open so I can hear the dryer tumble.

Here is a link to today's Proverb (NIV translation again today).

On Monday, I'm making a cold-call to who I hope will become a trusted colleague and ally, a man who's been running his own homeless shelter since the mid 90's, not ironically the time that I spent in the ministry, being prepared for what is now finally at hand. Everything in my life has lead up to this point: my own periods of homelessness, which nothing could replace that first-hand experience that remains perpetually immeasurable in value. And, naysayers be damned, several AI programs are helping me really get this initiative nailed down, in step by logical step fashion. It's awesome, and, of course, now I know by way of a very bad experience that vetting the information provided by AI is required in order to ferret out that of value and shirk the rest. I am, at least, the kind of person who tries to learn from experience.

Now, about "the thing" I did which I alluded to in a previous post, now I'll go ahead and tell you: when Fragrantica's owner is home from his current travels, he will, himself, be deleting my nearly-fifteen year old account there. The staff that I've told there have all said they're sad to see me go, and frankly so am I, but I have to empty my hands of this in order to pick up that which has been divinely placed before me. Volunteering isn't something that I'll be doing part time, but is and will even moreso become the very substance of every day life, every moment, of every.single.day.

Here's a screenshot of the message that I sent detailing my request; I'll save the warm responses for my own personal reference.

100% of every single reason for my decision is lain out in that message, posted there above this line and there is nothing more or less to it than that. Retrospectively, of course, I can see where in several places I was harpooned by using the mousepad on this laptop; some of the relevant text was selected and deleted without my seeing it because I typed right on through it happening and didn't see that it did until after the fact. No matter, the gist of the content made it through, and that's what matters.

Now, since I have several days remaining before he's able to delete the account, I asked my spousal authority (my husband) if he thinks it'd be okay for me to just proceed as normal for these days; his advice is 'no, commit to it and do it now' so, starting today, that is what I'm doing, though I did log on to select my scent of the day today... and that's all. 

Here's my YouTube short about "doing it afraid" which I'm surprised to see has over 700 views (which, in the podcast world is nothing but, to my little regular-self, is significant). 

Do It Afraid!

I have to post it there as an embedded link... because I still haven't submitted a support request to blogger.com 😂

So! It's back to grant-writing I go, both for my 501(c)(3) - thank God that I've already got our EIN! - as well as a couple of other local charities.

It's far beyond time that I left the echo-chamber of self-aggrandizement for the true treasure of a life lived in service to the least of these (per Jesus' words in Matthew 25). 

The instant I made the decision, the Lord gave me this Scripture to back it up and confirm that yes, this is the right thing to do and yes, now IS the time:

There's nothing wrong with part-time volunteer work, and I encourage everyone to weave that into their lives when and wherever possible. But, in my case, He is demanding that it become my entire, waking, breathing life. So, it's truly no wonder that it's taken more than fifty years to prepare me for this holy assignment! 

And, know this: I intend to be boots on the ground, interfacing with the clients - washing their feet myself, rather than delegating the sacred tasks of service. I never want to become one of those "charity" CEO's raking in millions, sequestered away from those they claim to serve in expensive, fancy offices. No, I want to unlock the closet so the residents can shop, I want to let them pick out toiletries, I want to cook and then hand them food, I want to make their beds, wash their clothing, pray for them, and sometimes even literally wash their feet. 
What a deep and profound honor it will be and, folks? 
I can't wait! 

❤