I recently attended a brunch at the local community volunteer organization. It is called RSVP.  The event was heart- warming as the room filled with seniors who had worked thousands of hours volunteering in various capacities in the city. In the RSVP organization, four hundred people had worked a total of 67,000 hours volunteering in various capacities.  The intent of the event was to thank these people for their service. The program included awards for specific volunteers and one in particular brought tears to the eyes of many people in the room.

An elderly gentleman was honored with a special award for mowing lawns.  He would travel from his home in the country into town to pick up a trailer, drive back home, load up his riding mower, and drive back into town to mow four lawns.  When these lawns were mowed he would reverse the process of taking the mower and the trailer back.  In total he drove 72 miles back and forth each week as he mowed four lawns for folks who were not capable of doing this for themselves. The director told of him loading and unloading his tractor and mowing, all the while whistling. He totally enjoyed the work he was doing.

When he was presented with the award, he stood and walked forward slowly with a cane over his forearm.  He stammered and said these simple words “I love to help people and mowing lawns is one way I can do that. I appreciate this recognition, but the real award is when someone says —- Thank you!”  I had tears in my eyes and saw others wiping tears off their cheeks.

This person is a giver. These people take great pleasure in helping others. The recipient may not realize or appreciate the personal effort required to help them.  Helping is a choice of the giver and the only payment for services rendered is appreciation for their time and effort. However, they do want to know their giving is appreciated. They simply want to hear, “Thank you!”  This small courtesy, often not spoken or written any more, means everything.

There is a message in this for all of us.  It is to say, “Thank you!”  People interact with us in many ways during the course of a day.  Some are ordinary verbal exchanges and we can thank someone for their communication.  In others, someone does a favor for us or helps us with a project and of course a thank you is appropriate.  Sometimes a person reaches out to us and offers the hand of kindness, unsolicited and unexpected.  They may have made all the difference in our day and a huge thank you would be appropriate.   There are many opportunities to say, “Thank you!”  Make this world a better place by expressing your appreciation!

Thank you for visiting the I.M. Heart blog site. Many blessings!