Post #200 for 2025 -- Gratitude

For only the fourth time in the nearly 20 years of posting at Out of My Hat I have reached 200 posts for the calendar year. I have tried to avoid long stretches of not posting this past year, and rarely go an entire week without a post of some kind.

This December has been weird. Going back to work at the shelter has disrupted my rhythm more than I expected it to. I think I'll re-adapt to the 12 hour overnight shifts okay, but for now they're more difficult to recover from than I remember. Or it could just be that another year older is making a difference.

There is a certain rhythm at the shelter. The energy can change from night to night depending on the severity of the weather and the individuals that stay with us on any given night. Personality conflicts between guests or disruptive animals can quickly change the energy of the night. I think that as the winter progresses people are finding their places and the shelter that works best for them. 
Ours is the only shelter that accepts pets, so that is a draw to the pet owners. We do have a cap on the number of animals we take, so there are also pet-less people there that choose our shelter for other reasons.

With both men and women, couples or singles, pets and pet less, and other differences, our place can be a bit more chaotic than other shelters. 
As you can imagine -- it's a lot of people-ing for a guy that enjoys solitude as much as I do.

I will say that I have noticed more gratitude and help from our overnight guests this year than was present in the past year or two. I don't know if it is just the luck of the draw with the people that have been coming to our shelter or if there is a trend of gratitude and appreciation returning to the homeless community.
Whatever the case, it does make serving them throughout the night much more enjoyable.

And, as always --
We have some wonderful volunteers that give of their time to help make the shelter successful. 
We have faced some challenges getting volunteers in this beginning part of the season, but as more continue to step forward it does reduce the stress on the ones that have been serving so often. 
There are people or organizations that provide food for evening meals and for breakfast every day and there are volunteers that come in to serve the meals and clean up the kitchen. 
Every day there are people that show up to clean the facility, to haul laundry, and to transport pets.
And there are our coordinators that recruit and schedule everyone from the sign-up people at the beginning of the night to the clean up people after everyone leaves.

I am truly grateful to everyone that contributes to making our little shelter successful.
Thank you
Thank you 
Thank you!

John