“I had ice cream for breakfast!” The girl beamed at me.
I was volunteering in Saxapahaw with a work crew. I had just edited the “Cooling Satation” sign, then passed out a boxed water to this young friend, whose unusual breakfast was the result of emptying the freezer during the second day of the power outage.
Another visitor to the church told me that his puppy watered trees with such leg-lifting enthusiasm that he sometimes fell over!
There’s nothing funny about the damage caused by Tropical Depression Chantal. The name Chantal reminded a fellow volunteer of a Russian-French painter and a lyric from the Weepies: “We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall.” The Weepies also sing, “The world spins madly on.”
Even as stronger storms result from climate change and the federal government cuts funds for emergency disaster response. This action will efficiently cut short lives. I know our situation can create weepy feelings of helplessness and despair.
But like the Weepies, “We make hope from every small disaster.“
Volunteering is one way to make hope. The word “volunteer” comes from the Latin term “velle,” which means “to wish.” I wish these storms didn’t happen and people didn’t suffer. My heart aches for the grieving people in Texas just as it did for western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
So, I wished to help in my community. I joined Black and White, young and old helpers, to fix sandwiches in the church kitchen for volunteers cleaning up the muddy buildings. While working, we told dog stories and sang songs about peanut butter and jelly. Tomorrow, I’m bringing ice cream.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.
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