Today I volunteered for Girl Scouts Beyond Bars as I do about once a month (if you're new to my blog and want to read my initial post about this, click here). After I picked up the first two girls (they're the two sisters I drove the very first time I volunteered) and was driving to pick up the third, I was thinking about how different my life is from theirs, and wondering if we can relate at all. Is it just a waste of time? I mean, here they are, being beaten down by the mainstream that they're still trying to live up to. And I have rejected the mainstream and am on my own path. Last time I drove we had a discussion of what kinds of snacks we could have on hand--for these girls who didn't eat any breakfast. Fruit? Huh-uh! No way! They want junk from McDonalds.
Anyway, I was thinking perhaps it was time to throw in the towel. They can't relate to my life, and I can't relate to theirs. And then, for some reason, I mentioned my chickens. I started telling about the funny things they do, like the two who have decided that they don't care to sleep in the coop, but wish to spend their nights on a beam high up by the garage roof. Every night for more than a week I've had to stand on a chair and get them down and put them in the coop. The youngest Girl Scout in my car, who is turning 10 this month, thought this was hysterical! When the third girl got in the car, she told her about it, and then asked for more chicken stories. I told them all about the chickens I had out in the country, and how we had one who came into the house to lay her eggs, and about the duck eggs that one hen hatched and then was the perfect mama hen to those "chicklings", and worried herself about to death when they hopped into a puddle and swam around!
After our visit at the prison, when we were all in the car again, they begged, "Tell us some more stories about your chickens!" And so I did.
Paul says they'll remember me as the "chicken lady." And I suppose we found something they can relate to in my life.
I think I'll continue, keeping on keeping on.
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1 comment:
Continue on, my friend!
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