It Beats Working for a Living!

I've had a couple of recent conversations with fellow air traffic control retirees. We all are of the retired and stay retired group as opposed to the group that retires and then goes to work as an FAA contractor. I'm way too happy in my retirement isolation and ability to make my own schedule without having to report to work several days per week.

The occasional preaching gig or camp added to the small amount of volunteer stuff is more than enough to fulfill my human interaction need. As a matter of fact, it appears that I'll be adding a couple of days per month of volunteer work as The Venues Church takes on another community project.

Yesterday was our first day volunteering at Crosslines food pantry. We (along with another church) helped 93 food insecure families "shop" for grocery items and commodities to help meet their needs.
The whole thing was a pretty amazing process.

There were volunteers working in the warehouse, volunteers stocking the "store," volunteers checking people in, volunteers "shopping" with clients, and volunteers to help carry items out to the cars. Some of the volunteers were very young (students) and some were in their 80s. Most were somewhere in between with younger retirees (like me) making up the majority.
Crosslines had a notice posted advertising a need for delivery drivers to get items to senior adults that can't make it into the facility. I left my name and number and expect to add that to my monthly volunteering.

As I finished shopping with one couple, all of the carry out volunteers were busy. I just grabbed some bags and helped them carry out their groceries myself. Like most of the people, the couple was so grateful for the food and for all of the people that volunteer to make it happen. This was the couple's first time to the food pantry. As we were walking out, the woman said, "If I had a dollar I would play the lottery today. I don't have a dollar, but I just feel so lucky and blessed!"

Volunteering to serve breakfast to the homeless and now to help provide for food insecure families is very humbling. None of these people are where they want to be or even ever thought they'd be. They come because they are in need. They come because they have kids to feed. They come because there are people in this community that don't have enough to eat -- and there are lots of them!
They are limited to how often they can come to the food pantry. Even though they are limited to only a few times PER YEAR, the pantry is open to serve families EVERY WEEKDAY.
We served almost 100 families on a Wednesday! I have to think that others days would be just as busy, if not busier.

I am truly blessed that my pension and savings allow me to be retired at a relatively young age. I am not as well off as many of my fellow controllers that worked longer and in higher paying facilities. But I realize that I am still very well off by most standards of living in the United States and around the world. Having a small part in helping someone to "...feel so lucky and blessed" sure beats any part time retirement job and is way more valuable than collecting another paycheck.

This morning I'm back on my couch, drinking my coffee (an Ethiopian single origin gift from my daughter), and recharging for my Downtown Venues outing tonight and my Breakfast Venues outing in the morning.
Yeah, as rewarding as it may be, being around so many people still drains my life energy. Quiet time restores my spirit.

John <><