I think a lot of folks tend to feel letdown after Christmas, after all the gifts are opened, and the extended family members are gone, and the decorations come down. I feel that way a tiny bit, but I am also eager to get going on 2014, to make positive changes in my life.
I need to find some time to volunteer.
Anyone who was "raised right" knows that it's important to give back to your community. Volunteers help keep our schools vibrant, our neighborhoods safe, and community service is the backbone of America. I was fascinated to read an article the other day that reports that for people in my age group, it's also important for your health.
I was sitting in the dermatologist's waiting room browsing theough a copy of the Oprah magazine when I ran across this:
"A 2013 study in the journal Psychology and Aging revealed that adults over the age of 50 who reported volunteering at least 200 hours in the past year (roughly four hours per week) were 40 percent less likely than non-volunteers to have developed hypertension four years later. Though researchers don't fully understand why giving back can have such a marked impact on blood pressure, they believe it may be linked to the stress-reducing effects of being both active and altruistic."
The article goes on to say that volunteering expands our social networks. That's newspeak for "you meet more folks." Duh.
I would put it another way. When you are doing something for someone else, you get outside your own head. Being inside your own head constantly obsessing over yourself and what you want is the surest way to be depressed and unhappy. I've got a couple of friends who are that way, and I cannot get them to see the foolishness of their self-obsession.
I come from a long line of people who understand the importance of giving back, or doing things for others. My mom spent hours working for the March of Dimes, and other organizations, and doing work at church. Dad was active in the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs, Red Cross, United Way, and other charitable outfits.
My grandmother, Mamaw Hasty, was a great one for volunteering. When Mom was in the first grade, in Smyrna, Georgia, the school system was in a couple of buildings on the same campus, grades 1-12. It was the Depression, and there was no lunch program at school. Many of the kids came to school with nothing to eat for lunch.
Mamaw was a tiny fireball of a woman, who had been to college and studied Home Economics and Nutrition, which was rare for a Southern woman in the 1930's. Mamaw organized it so that local folks donated what they grew and canned, and vats of hot soup were made every day for the kids in all the grades. Each child got a bowl of soup and a piece of cornbread. Eventually the government chipped in and bought each child a piece of fruit for lunch. Mamaw got it all organized, got the parents volunteering, and made sure each child in that school had a hot, nutritious lunch every day.
Mom always says I am a lot like Mamaw. She taught me to just wade in and do what needs to be done, and to be highly organized.
Thanks be to God that she influenced me so much. Everything she taught me came in handy in my legal career.
So if you are feeling blue or down about the holidays being over, find something to do for somebody else. Volunteer at the nearest school or hospital, or animal shelter. Get outside your own head. Stay busy.
You'll do some good in the world, and help your own physical and mental health.
Right, Mamaw as a young woman. Papaw at around the same time.
