staples
Mocking birds exercise the ranting from which they get their name while crows caw seemingly just because they can. A cool presence engulfs this sleepy possessor of Parkinson’s as he waits for Gracie the Golden to demonstrate her morning constitutional. The lightening, rain and wind from the evening before have given way to a calm but overcast morning that holds promise for the chores ahead for today. At the center of the plan is today’s delivery of what has been dubbed the “backpacks” to one of the city’s elementary schools. The project, under the direction of the city’s food pantry known as God’s Store House, delivers a hefty bag of sundry staples for more than two hundred children at the school who might otherwise experience hunger over the weekend. We deliver only a small portion of those that are put together by eager and generous hands from ages six to near ninety working together to sort, assemble, and place lovingly in bags and boxes that are handy for the journey from the First Baptist Church to the school. The kids at the school who participate in the program will receive their “backpack” of staples that will be delivered and sorted early this afternoon. Each backpack contains more than the total of the items therein; they contain the touch of loving and eager hands to help with something for the benefit of others! They contain thoughts of gratitude and thankfulness that funds have been supplied to purchase products that meet a need. They contain the heartfelt desire to help others that supersedes the sometimes otherwise limiting physical impediments that hold some back. Although each backpack may look the same, they are each as different as the hands and hearts that take them and the hands and hearts that have made and placed them. Love is the act that creates, toils, tarries, and positions; gratitude and sustained good health is the intended result. Each is as important as the other as we take this life journey together!