Helping Out Someone in Need

Yesterday, I took my 91 and 1/2 year old friend to physical therapy.  Sounds great, right?

In the morning, I was dreading it.

Driving over to her house, I was damning myself a bit for agreeing to take her.

Immediately after walking into her house, I was so content and happy with my decision.  Just hearing her voice and how she was so happy when she heard “Fitz” was coming to get her, maybe me light up inside.

I genuinely adore my conversations with this woman.  She told me she owned her first car in 1952, after the war and after her husband finished law school.  She said it was a gorgeous Florida ocean blue and that it was an incredible car.  I felt like I was driving Ms. Daisy.

She also told me a story about how a neighbor had built a naughty snowman during the blizzard and she thought it was humorous and couldn’t understand why people made him take it down.

I can say with absolute certainty that there was nothing else in my day that would have been better than the two hours I spent with her.  Sure, I dreaded it.  I definitely didn’t want to go volunteer, despite knowing how much I was helping someone else.  I felt I didn’t have the time in my schedule today to squeeze something like this out and I was worried that I would be absolutely exhausted with tutoring until 9PM.

I guess helping out others is a lot like going to the gym when you don’t want to.  You often dread it and try to talk yourself out of it, but once you are there and in the action, you are very pleased with your decision.

So yesterday’s daily task towards happiness: Helping out someone in need.  Success: Definitely!

To Smile.