Pro bono

Yesterday, for some reason, turned out to be Volunteer Day for me. In the morning, I returned a call from my former voice teacher. I was hoping she had some kind of musical thing she wanted me to do. Instead, she asked if I knew anything about framing pictures. As a matter of fact, I used to work in an art and framing store, matting and framing pictures. I went to her house, and by noon, I had finished framing her picture. Then I moved on to a dress someone wanted me to hem with my serger. The friend I was doing this for had traded me a spool of wooly nylon for my work. My serger didn't work on this very frail fabric and ended up leaving a frayed edge and a line of serging thread that had frayed off the end of the fabric. I fiddled and experimented and finally ended up sewing a rolled hem on my other machine.
Finally in the evening, my sweet neighbor who has been my best friend since I moved here 20 years ago ended up coming over, since poor Sailor was called out to work a graveyard shift as the welders fixed some blown out tubes at the power plant. We had a "girls night out" or maybe I should say "in" as we made handouts for her upcoming lesson in Relief Society. I had so much fun with my sweet friend laughing and talking while we made her handouts. We were going to watch a movie, but ended up just talking. Her dad has been terribly sick and then died this spring, and she has been so busy either taking care of him for years or just recovering from his death that I haven't seen much her. It was such a fun evening, even though we dragged to bed by 3:00 a.m.
I am still working on my grand daughter's blessing dress which has to be done by Saturday when she is blessed in her home.
Sharing talents and serving others is such a refreshing thing to do. I find myself so much happier when I have done something for someone else. Its amazing when doing these types of things how one is no longer focusing on themselves but busily and happily serving someone else.
And even though I feel wiped out from keeping such late hours, I cherish that time spent with my sweet friend.
~a