35 members of our team participated in a volunteer day yesterday. We spent the day weeding, cutting, seeding, planting, scraping and painting for a non-profit organization that works with children with social and learning challenges while providing care for animals and nature.
If you’ve followed my blog, you’ve seen a number of posts on the importance of doing what you love. The staff at this organization who was guiding our team through various lawn, gardening and fence painting projects was all-in. You could feel their commitment. You could feel their love for the children, the gardens, the animals and their work. Inspiring? Over-the-top. Good people? Crazy Good. And yet more Good…
It was good to get out of the office.
It was good to get out of the same-day-after-day-after-day routine and establish a new calming rhythm digging, cutting, pruning or planting.
It was good to clean the mind and the soul of the work noise, the mental clanking of revenue pressure and the crush of pending deliverables – – with some good ol’ fashion physical labor.
It was good to learn more about team members and their families away from the rush-rush in the office. Team members who are feet away – – that you somehow never get a chance to do more than rush by and say hello on your way to the next meeting.
I’m sure it was good for the team to see that their managers are human and are not the tunnel vision focused robots that they see from 8 to 6pm.
It was sooooo good to get home and get into a hot shower and let the water run and run and run some more over my aching muscles.
It hurt to get out of bed this morning (it really hurt) – but you know the feeling – it was a good hurt – a good hurt for your muscles to throb and ache in parts of your body that have long gone unused.
It was good to spend a few hours of a single day to be reminded of really good things.
Photo Source: Thank you Carol Welsh for the “baby Zinnia” photo. Carol’s blog is @ Flowers, Trees, & Other Such Gifts of Nature
Live & Learn 
I think I know why no one has responded to this one yet. “Good” is such a huge topic. Where do we start? I could write a book about “good.” But right now, I’ll settle for feeling good about doing good,
But is that being selfish? See, now you’ve got me started. Is it bad to do good because it feels good? I hope I haven’t opened Pandora’s box.
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Let it fly Anneli. Let it fly. Not enough *good* to go around!
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Well, of course. Just thought I’d throw a little fly into the ointment. (I don’t even like flies.) hahaha – I just realized you said, “Let if FLY.” That was unintentional.
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Reblogged this on Flowers, Trees, & Other Such Gifts of Nature and commented:
Awww, my baby Zinnia photo found a wonderful place to be… 🙂
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Your “baby Zinnia” froze me in my tracks. Baby Zinnia – children who need help – I saw a natural connection that just had to happen with your spot. Thanks for making it happen Carol….
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It all just seems so sweet…that photo of a baby Zinnia, arms outstretched, a tuft of petals on top (like a child, REALLY!), and all included in such a very special post. Thank you so much. 🙂
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Honestly I didn’t see all of that, but I’m with you, all-in! Love the photo 🙂
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Wonderful post, Dave. Yes – it’s so good to get the hands dirty and the muscles achy and help along the way. Gardening is cleansing for the soul.
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Thank you LaDona. Yes, I agree.
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I think it’s better-than-good when organizations encourage their people to step outside of their daily routines and do something important and physical and collaborative. It’s good for the soul, good for the head and arguably a little tough on the body.
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I agree. And everyone who participated felt the same way.
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Love it! Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks Tony.
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Kudos to you and your team for the volunteer day and doing helpful work to help a non-profit that benefits kids, animals, and nature.
I can relate to what you said about it being good to get out of the office and away from the mundane day to day office routine, and I am confident that the out of office interpersonal team connections that you formed are invaluable. I work in a front office at at university, and I see it all the team how people can be “too busy” rushing to meetings to at times even say a simple “hello” to others they pass by, let along deeper interactions and knowing the needs and cares of their co-workers. Real human connection gets lost in “the grind,” and that is not good.
One thing my office started doing is having regular social get togethers at one another’s homes in order to foster connections. Besides enjoying a cookout and potluck type food, it is nice to hear more about each other’s lives and families in a more laid back enviroment that has been a lot of fun and bridges the gaps with all staff invited in our entire building. it is “good.” 🙂
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Great idea Julieannne. Completely agree that human connection gets lost in the day to day grind. Thanks for sharing in the conversation.
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It sounds like you had a really good day David. A change in the daily routine is good for work morale and just plain good for us. Have a great Thursday!
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It was Tina, thanks.
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