Doing Damns The Darkness

Life is such an odd thing. Right now, on several different fronts, I'm going through a really tough time. As such when we drove to Saint Jacobs on Thursday night for a fundraiser for Choices in Fort McMurray on Friday in Kitchener, I felt very little like traveling, staying in a hotel, or getting up to do a lecture. I just wanted to sit in a corner and give up.

But, that not being an option, we got to the hotel. Joe went and got a few things we needed while I did what needed done on the computer and then, when he got back, he dragged me out for a walk. I enjoyed the fresh air and that frisson of excitement you get when crossing a busy road with cars that refuse to slow to let you pass, and it was simply nice to get out.

Getting up and sitting on the side of the bed, I wondered how I was going to give a lecture, particularly one with some humour in it, when I felt humourless and washed out and just tired from life. But the clock ticks and you have to get to it. So, I did. Soon we were in the car and then at the venue.

The moment we went in and joined in the buzz of excitement from the team from KW Habilitation who were putting on the fundraiser, things began to change. We watched the bake table get set up, Joe snatched a strawberry and rhubarb pie right off, we met the a fellow with an intellectual disability who was going to be selling 50/50 tickets and he was into sales from the get go, we saw the preparations for the lunch that was going to be on sale. We talked with people about what the fundraiser was about and why it was important.

For those who don't know Vita organized a (we hope) province wide fundraiser for Choices Association for Community Living in Fort McMurray. We called them to see how the wildfire had affected people with intellectual disability in Fort McMurray given the devastation to the town. What we heard was distressing and we received permission to go ahead and attempt a big fundraiser along with other service organizations serving people with disabilities across the province. Communities Support Communities, we called it - and this was part of that initiative.

By the time I was to start I had picked up from the mood of the room, from the determination to help others, from the general excitement that comes from an audience that's at a lecture on a Friday for a good cause. For the whole day I was away from cares and concerns and worries. It was a wonderful break.

Doing good things, and the right time, can have a remarkable effect. "Doing Damns the Darkness," for me is more than a phrase on this blog, it's a reminder to me that I can take action against anxieties and worries and 'things that go bump in the day'.

I have another, the last one, on Thursday, and now, I know it's there to help others, but it's going to help me too.

I'm good with that.