Lost in a Sea of Box Tops and Bad News

      These are interesting times we live in and I say that even knowing that other times were just as fascinating, its just I wasn't there so it's considered history. Which is unfortunately a dull and boring subject if you never get pass high school or college history classes. I think it's difficult for people to relate to history when classes revolve around dates and chronological time lines that are just about wars, and not the daily life and experiences of the people. 
      And then we end up with this arrogance over our ancestors because we think we're better than they were, that we had better stuff than they did, because we don't understand the things we haven't been taught in school.
      It's just all the events and disasters in the world right now make you wonder how the show is going to end. When you have riots breaking out all over the Middle East and Africa, which seems like a world away, but then you have huge protests in your own country, it reminds us that history happened to regular people just like us. We're not immune from it, we're part of it. Even our simple choices that seem routine, propel us towards the future and eventually our own entry in the history books.

       I tend to worry too much about things I can't control or change, like the earthquake in New Zealand or the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that lingers. I do small things and hope that it makes a difference. Like Box Tops for my children's school. And boy, what a pain that is, cutting and clipping, sorting and stacking, bundling and counting. Luckily, I had recuits. Hero hottie and the children were given scissors and rubber bands and put to work.
      The task was so large I started bringing the Box Tops along with me to public places while waiting to pick up the children and didn't realize how guilty I could make people feel just by trying to help the school. I had Moms come up to me that I didn't even know and give me a list of reasons why they didn't help their children's school. Why they didn't have time to volunteer even though they should. Do they assume that I DO have the time?
      I even had Moms purposely avoid looking at me in case there guilt happen to be too much and they offer to help. Actually, I had children and teenagers offer to help me but not the busy adults.
     Now, I'm not saying we should volunteer so much that our families suffer or our children don't know who we are but there are small things we can all do. An hour a month at a local agency, or keeping a box in the pantry and buying extra items for it to drop off at a woman's shelter or going down to a school and buying supplies for the classrooms.
      In the mean time, I can't fix all the bad news in the world, the people that are living a future entry in our history books, but I can focus on the small things, my community, my family and if we all did that, we would eventually touch the entire world.
      So while we all try to keep our heads above water in this crazy sea of bad news, huge disasters, and constantly shifting events, we need to remember a few things...only volunteer for Box Tops if you like cutting and bundling, people will spend more time making excuses than actually doing something and sometimes even optimistic people like myself will be gloomy when there's too much hurt in the world.
        Remember to do a few small things this week for someone else, say a few prayers for the people that have had a horrible week, and love really does run the universe, even if it seems a bit faded and jaded in the world lately.