Giving and Receiving

On my birthday I started the day bright and early (5:30!) by volunteering at a soup kitchen uptown.  The volunteers that I worked with were friendly, efficient, and acted like family with one another because they see each other every Tuesday morning to serve breakfast to 125 homeless and hungry people.  It was really cool to see that generous perspective of the city.

The homeless situation is major here with tens of thousands of homeless people, but there are lots of organizations and efforts to help these people.  They are, perhaps, some of the most visible but least acknowledged people you encounter when in NYC.  They show up on the trains doing songs, dances, or just pure begging to scrape together pennies.  You see them lying on sidewalks.  As I passed out milk and sugar to the people at this soup kitchen, it occurred to me that while some people looked the stereotypical part of the homeless person, many did not.  There were people that if I saw walking on the street I would not know that they were hungry and down on their luck.

When I see people asking for money in the subways or on the street I've asked myself, "What should I do??" because I want to help those who truly need it.  It's a question that I know lots of people struggle with.  I feel conflicted about handing out money sometimes because I don't know what the person's intent is.  But, volunteering at a soup kitchen or in some other capacity helps ease my mind because 1) I can see the direct effect of my efforts and 2) I can actually interact in a safe way with these people and develop more compassion for their struggles.

I'd like to establish a routine volunteering schedule.  I signed up for this project through an awesome organization called New York Cares, which easily (I mean so simply) connects volunteers to projects all around NYC.  In the orientation for NY Cares, there was a video that talked about calling New York City "home".  I've been laughing to myself recently about how I have a 'home identity crisis' right now because I still call Durham "home" as well as our apartment here.  Home has a lot of meanings, but in this video it talked about how you work and give back to a place to make it your home.  You have to do something for your city for it to truly be yours.  That resonated with me and it makes sense that you feel connected to a place when you work to make it a better, more vibrant community.  Wherever you are reading this, I encourage you to volunteer somehow...do something to make your community even better.  

I entitled this post "Giving and Receiving" because through giving of my time I received a blessing of awareness and more compassion...those are pretty great birthday gifts.