Distilled Moments

by Lynnd

Sometimes it seems that we are so caught up in life that we just don't have or take the time to notice or savor little gifts that are handed to us. I have been having a moment all this week and have been pondering why it has made me so happy and why I feel such soul satisfying joy from it? It has taken me a few day to let it seep and distill down and really appreciate what it all means to me.

This last week some of you may have noticed a status post from me on Facebook. I posted that our food bank had received a brand new still in the box, frost free, upright freezer. I was doing a happy dance like you would not believe. We were all excited and beaming, not just me. The food bank has had much support from people over the 5 years we have been in existence but this really sent us into happy over load. Why? Well I really had to think about this and live the moments over in my mind. I think it really hit when I got teary eyed that night at home, and my husband looked at me and said "Hey it's a freezer", like geez yes, that is nice but get over it! So I shared the information below with him and he finally got it! I hope you do too.

We received this freezer from Thurston County food bank who is our lead agency. Someone donated two freezers to them and they thought to call us to see if we could use the other one. Well of course we said YES! What most people including my husband don't realize is that everything we have to run the food bank has been donated, and about 90 percent of that is used. Oh we have some new shelving units but appliances second or third hand used in many cases. We have been thrilled over the years to get these items as they helped start this food bank and kept the doors open. We have duct tapped, bubble gummed and twist tied so many things together that it is just what we do. I remember when we got our Walk in freezer and refrigeration unit we had all of this joy then, though it was headache to get it here from the midwest and then it had to be put together by great volunteers with no instructions and lots of prayers, as it was used too. It was the only one we could find that was even close to the money amount of the grant we received to get one. Even with all of that we had to come up with another 1,000 dollars to have it shipped to us. When it was finally put together and hooked up we still needed another hundred dollars to finish the wiring for it. That hundred dollars came from a few volunteers so we could get the sucker up and running as we were on a deadline.

So this was something that was brand new no cost to us or the food bank and boy we were gathered to enjoy it. It came on a truck with a food delivery we were waiting for and we had many of our volunteers on hand to help off load the truck. We even had 4 high school students there to help. The work study teacher was more than happy to have them volunteer for us that day as we were all hands on deck, this was a huge delivery. We got busy and unloaded the food first and had it put away and in it's place. Then the big guys we called took out the old upright and hauled it outside for us ( yes it still worked and it went to a clients family that needed one), finally off the truck came the new freezer! They got it to the doorway and it wouldn't fit.....but it only needed the packing box and materials removed to make this work. 

Now here is when I think I realized what a real gift this was. One of the students from the high school piped up and asked if they could have the cardboard box? We all turned to her and she looked at us and said "What? Appliance boxes are so cool!" Well we all looked at each other, several generations from 65 to 17, and we all got these knowing smiles on our faces and the memories started to flow. Everyone talking about the joys of a big cardboard box. Play houses, kool aide stands, and forts featured prominently in these memories, yes cardboard boxes are cool! She wanted it to take to the kids in the preschool program at the high school.  It struck me that maybe in this crazy world we just over analyze or get bogged down in the crazy that is our world today, but really some of the old innocence is still there when this wonderful girl from a much younger generation was passing along imagination and wonder in the form of a cardboard box from a freezer that was donated to a food bank. So we only cut one seam so she could take the box with her to duct tape and use to her hearts desire. Really looking back the guys really treated this like a ceremony celebrating that innocent moment.

Then there it was, this beautiful appliance, the guys slid it right into it's waiting spot like it was made to be there, it fit perfectly! We all cheered and I yelled out that maybe we should have had a bottle of champagne on hand to celebrate! Everyone laughed, and then I got my third gift. I looked around and it dawned on me, how so many of us who have shared so much blood, sweat and tears getting this food bank open and keeping it going all had the same appreciation and understanding about how special this free freezer was. 

For the last two days we have oohed and ahhedd over it. When I called the Director of the Thurston County food bank to thank him profusely for it, he was calmly happy, almost matter of fact in his response to my thanks. I realized that this is an every day event to him. So I thought lets spread the joy here.  I then explained to him that this was like getting a new Porsche to us. We have checked under the hood, ran our hands over it lovingly and the fact that it is frost free was like getting heated seats when you have a heater that barely works in your old car! He laughed a joyful laugh because he finally understood how special this was to us.  He then Informed me that I had made his day to know how much we appreciated this gift.

How many gifts was that?

 What I have realized is that I hope no one ever gets so jaded or busy that they can't stop to take a moment and ponder how one generous store bought gift, an every day thing to most people, can and should result in so many life lesson gifts...... if we just pay attention.