Abundance of Love...

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Part 2 of 4 of the abundance challenge from the @ecotrain community was to post a real life scenario in which community members are challenged to find something to which they have abundance of and use that for good. While there are plenty of material items in the world that need recycled, re-purposed, and cleaned up - I decided to take a different approach to this challenge.

Some more background on me before I get into what I decided to do with this challenge...

I've been married to my loving and beautiful wife for what will be 15 years this summer. We've been together for what will be 21 years in totality. Since the age of adulthood, we've been life partners. I'm thrilled to live my life with her and our little chihuahuas that we've had for many of the years of our journey. We have moved up and down the east coast of the United States most of our adult lives having never been settled in one place for more than 6 years. We've both made the life decision to not have children and live our lives vicariously and to the best of our abilities. It's been an amazing journey together thus far with her from meeting her at the age of 17 to today's present moment. We've known each other now longer than whence we didn't. Pretty cool by our standards...

All that said, we both want to live PURPOSEFUL LIVES. Both of us having decided not to have children has led me to a position in my life that has left me wondering what my purpose in this life is. Over the last 5+ years, I have been on a spiritual journey of sorts, searching and wanting to find this out. Besides wanting to know my own purpose, I've found myself along this journey becoming full of love, appreciation, and wonderment of life. When you allow yourself to take a step back and look at the magnificence of life and the creations of the universe, it becomes very difficult not to feel deep, raw, and abundant LOVE for being afforded the opportunity to live life.

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So while there are plenty of reasons to look at life and wonder why there is so much hate, violence, hunger, pollution, war, and other tragedies; I aim to focus on the one true emotion that can and will one day cure the ailments of our beautiful Earth and eventually of all humankind - LOVE.

Through my spiritual journey and awakening, I have learned that I have far more than I truly need in this physical life. One, of the many things that I decided I can do is give back; and one of those ways is to give LOVE to those around me. Now, make no mistake; I don't walk around in my waking state with a massive grin always hugging everyone I encounter with a big verbally affirmed " I LOVE YOU," to every person I meet. While that wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily, it may not be well received by all ;-) Instead, I aim to bring peace, understanding, encouragement, support, and guidance for all those that I interact with. I have decided that through my spiritual waking and seeking to understand more about myself, it will also be incumbent upon myself to spread LOVE and UNDERSTANDING to all those who may seek or need it that I encounter.

I do this through my work and career as well as through my personal interactions - even with strangers that I encounter through my daily life. I have a demanding role within my company have a higher level role that affords me to lead my organization of people how I see fit. Being able to provide a kind, sincere, genuine, and honest level of leadership; helping those around me obtain and reach more in their lives is good - - - but I found myself still wanting and feeling I had more Love to give.

So, not long ago, I signed up for a local hospice service near where I live. As I work through this explanation of what I've decided to do with my abundance of Love and care for those around me, I'm going to change the name of the individual to which I'm volunteering with and choosing to spend with for the sake of privacy. I will share the name of the organization and my real first name just so readers can validate my described experiences.

First, I'll begin by saying through my meditations, I've been asking and seeking for purpose. When one does this, it is important to SEE and pay attention to what life puts in front of you. I have long held a fascination for life and what comes after the physical so it wasn't any surprise to me that I quickly found myself engaged in conversation with "Ohio Living," a local agency specifically designed to assist in the death process and care for patients and their families. A few months ago I completed the registration and background checks and became a part-time volunteer with Ohio Living. Below is a picture of the handbook with all the rules and regulations through which I was trained on in my orientation as well as my official badge (last name removed).

I was assigned a "partner." I will refer to him as Robert. Robert is 94 years young, vibrant, strong of mind - but widowed and living alone in an apartment. He has a daughter that relentlessly cares for him, but needs a break sometimes. I make it a point to contact her every so many weeks, check in with her, and visit Robert on my free time. Robert is a WWII vet who spent time engineering roads and bridges during the war effort over in Germany. Listening to his stories and tales from what he witnessed was inspiring and also humbling for me.

So far I have only spent about 6 hours of time with Robert, but each time I see him I leave feeling a little more appreciation for his life and what he's gone through. While I don't think Robert fully understands why I choose to do what I do, I can tell he is appreciative to have the company, companionship, and just someone to simply speak with concerning the goings on in the world. We will sit and talk about sports mostly, but also of his many stories and past experiences. And I am happy all the while to simply be there...and listen.

Upon leaving I need to fill out a progress form concerning what we did. This is a simple process, but an important one for the agency as to make sure that any regression or progress is noted for administrative reasons. I'm happy to report that Robert and I have only had great visits thus far and he is doing quite well. I can't help but hope when I reach the wise and experienced age of 94 that I too will be as fortunate as he in remaining strong of spirit and mind.

I recently shared my volunteering ventures with a few of my co-workers. While they seemed inspired to hear about what I was doing I couldn't help but feel the sorrow and dread from them. One even went as far as to say, "Wow, great of you to have such kindness, but why are you choosing to put yourself through such pain and sorrow? It's a great cause, but just so depressing." While I could understand and see through the lens by which he was viewing this, I was quick to respond with telling him we can't hide from death. People spend all their lives pushing the thought off and when the time comes that they must address it they are often more afraid. I told him that I appreciate life so much and celebrate what it has to offer that by doing this, it is almost a way to further show my Love and understanding for the process. Life is meant to experienced and CELEBRATED. Even towards the end of it, why not cherish and continue to celebrate what we've been given?

Why not also look for opportunities to celebrate the lives of those whom are still with us? Strangers are simply friends I haven't met yet, so why not let my hospice friend Robert know that he is Loved and appreciated? I don't expect everyone to understand my motivations but they don't have to. This is for me, my purpose, and what I need to give to the world - in my own small way. I have an abundance of Love and I'm going to continue to share it with EVERYONE I possibility can.

Much Love to all...

Be well.

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