What a slacker

I always have the hardest time coming up with titles for my entries.  This one stems from the fact that I’ve started five posts in the last few months, felt ADD coming on each time and abandoned each attempt completely.  I think my grandmother would call that a complete lack of “stick-to-it-iveness.”  I just call it slacking.  Even now I’m typing with one hand, as the other is occupied holding my trade-mark strawberry Popsicle of summer.  Well, if the shoe fits…

I’ve been quite busy trying to accomplish my resolutions of July thus far.  This month, I planned to 1. Relax (thus the slacking on all fronts) 2.  Start volunteering again 3.  Be a real city girl.  I think this month has been more difficult than others, since the relaxing gives me no motivation to get stuff done.  So in all reality I haven’t gotten very far on the city life, and I just tonight volunteered for the first time in what feels like ages.  I went to the Baywind Nursing home tonight.  I’ve decided to do an incredibly awkward ministry called Happy Feet.  We meet at the nursing home, warm up lotion and towels, and then give complete strangers foot rubs.  For some reason I think its easier to give an old person a foot rub than even a friend, there’s no pressure what so ever.  It was pretty cool, we had great conversation and the ladies were so appreciative.

I got a thorough kick out of the whole situation for several reasons.

No men.  Any one surprised?  Honestly I wasn’t; a lot guys have this weird impression that touch is a bad thing.  It boggles my mind, because touch is like the fourth necessity of life in my book.  I crave it more than chocolate when I’m sad:)  I understand how the ministry spawned though.  Touch is so stinkin therapeutic.  Even though I was giving the massage and not receiving, I left feeling like my spirit had been stroked.

I also loved how the ladies didn’t take themselves too seriously.  The first lady I got was quite a pistol.  She sat  calmly in her wheel chair, kicked off her shoes and said “Hope it doesn’t bother you, my feet already look dead.”  What a great way to start a conversation!  I figured God sent this lady to brighten my day, cause she had more funk than I’d expect at a James Brown concert.  When I grow up, I want to be like her, she could still see the comic side of the situation.

So, there’s my first Baywind experience.  I’m sure there will be more to come.  I can admit that it was hard to go into a nursing home, after all of the painful experiences I’ve had there.  I guess I’ll have to keep putting myself out there.