Indulge me in a personal post.
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. It is also promoted as "A Day On, Not A Day Off" to encourage giving back to the community through volunteering. President (elect) Obama called for Americans to perform community service. As a "professional volunteer," I felt a tinge of guilt for not participating in a volunteer project yesterday. My goal for the day was to stay inside and keep warm, except for the brief walks of the dog I was charged with watching.
The city just got a few inches of snow and was beautiful, the trees glistening with ice and white snow. On one of my walks with the dog, soaking in the sight, I saw a brown coffee holder sticking out of the snow. I reached under a bench to grab it and threw it into a trash can sitting nearby. Farther along, I saw a large, blue piece of paper, laying on the ground. I grabbed that as well.
Rather uneventful but it gave me pause. Volunteering takes so many forms. And as I professionally struggle with a written definition of volunteering, I realized that volunteering is something you know when you do it.