I had made a commitment to work locally in the spring after a couple of years working 400 miles away from home on The Outer Banks. Though I stayed busy for several months doing a series of jobs, mostly for some of the kind people at church, I had run out of work and did not know what to do with myself. In a clientele driven business there are some dues to pay and I was paying them- no jobs lined up in a market that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, in the midst of the holidays, at the beginning of winter in a profession that is typically busier the other three seasons of the year. It seemed pretty grim for a while.​​​

    

     I woke up one day needing to make some decisions about how to proceed. I do not thrive on lounging around, trying to fill my time in trivial pursuits, while pondering the looming bills to pay and an empty place in my soul of which I usually was not aware. It was an opportunity to make a plan for moving forward.​​​

    

     Service is a big part of my work and I have always taken it very seriously. It seems to me that making a living is almost always a matter of providing a service. What I did not understand until I reflected upon it was that service is not just about "making a living" but a critical element in making a life.​​​

    

     Perspective is not always easy to acquire- life is like standing in a forest so thick that you can't tell which way to go. If you have ever been lost in the woods you know what I mean- if you just walk, there is no guarantee ​that you won't end up walking in circles. The best course of action is to examine your surroundings, find a prominent rock or hill or climb a tree and identify some landmarks. By traveleing from one identifiable point to another it is possible to stay on-course.

     

      Don't forget to check your progress regularly to make sure that you haven't gone astray while you are in the thick of it. So it is with life in general. Someone once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. So, stop and take stock frequently because it is so easy to get lost.​

    

     Despite the struggles of unemployment and quite possibly because of the opportunities that the exercize of reflection ultimately represented, I made a decision to get involved in my church, in my community, and in the support of causes that I identified as important. I have no regrets. I gained valuable insights into the plight of  thousands right here in this city. ​

    

     I discovered that in our county of 87,000 residents there are at least 15,000, many of them children, who don't know where their next meal is coming from. This shocked me and it should shock you. There I was feeling a bit beaten down, isolated and losing hope when I suddenly knew that my own troubles were  trivial in comparison. This realization led me to a decision that has transformed the very quality and texture of my life. ​

    

     While I was not working I embarked on a true labor of love, and started a gardening project at church that is designed to help people start gardens and provide some relief to the hungry (see the link on the home page). For the first time in my life I have become involved in my community and an effort to build a better world through service. ​

    

     In the period of about a year I have gone from being a disenfranchised outsider to a committed activist for food security with a circle of friends and peers that I could not have imagined such a short time ago. If anything, the community service has improved my service in business, and it too has grown with a developing clientele. I have much to be thankful for and now I am very very busy and happier than I have ever been- thanks to a decision to serve.​

    

     There is so much need and so many ways to help it could be overwhelming without perspective and reflection. Find your passion,  commit to work for the common good, and make a difference.​