People have all kinds of noble reasons for reaching out to help those around them. My world is pretty narrow. I rarely have the opportunity to touch anyone who does not live within my four walls. Until my recent reconnection to society through my scattered substitute teaching days, I have been immersed in family life to the fullest. Maybe that is why I constantly feel the need to reach someone, in a positive way, beyond those I see every day. Maybe my reason is not so noble, but more a selfish desire to matter, or a selfish motivation of - what if it were my loved one in need. Either way, the need is real; as kooky as it may sound.
I, much to my husband and mother's dismay, always sign the back of my driver's license denoting myself as an organ donor. Obviously I hope that my need to do good happens in a way that does not require my vital organs, but if it came to that, I would want someone somewhere to benefit. I constantly contemplate joining the Red Cross. I watch the disasters going on around us and feel this overwhelming pull to go and serve and help. I have checked into the training on more than one occasion but in the end the devotion to my young family always wins out and my need to go and serve gets put on a back burner with all of the other "when the kids are older" plans. I think about adoption, a lot. I wonder if there is a child somewhere waiting just for me to have a home, and a chance at life. I have a need to help someone else, but always seem to find an excuse as to why it is never the right time; until yesterday - maybe.
Yesterday I took four cotton swabs and swiped them to the inside of each cheek. I carefully placed each swab into a return envelope marked, Be the Match. Be the Match is a registry for those willing to be marrow and stem cell donors for patience with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases. I have no idea if I will be a match, ever. I have no idea if I will get a call saying someone somewhere needs my blood stem cells or bone marrow, ever. I just know that if they do, I'll be ready. I'll be excited to have the opportunity to help. I realize that signing up for the registry is really no help in its self, but it does lay the opportunity out there.
I sign up to be an organ donar because if someone I loved needed an organ, I would hope someone, somewhere signed theirs too. I think about joining the Red Cross because if the disaster happens in my back yard, I would hope someone, somewhere would take the time to serve. I think about adoption becuase if I had to give up my child, I would hope that someone, somewhere would open their heart and take them in. I signed up on the Be the Match registry because if someone I loved needed marrow or stem cells, I would hope someone, somewhere was willing to give of their's.
So, as crazy as it may sound, I hope to help. I hope to do my part, in some small way, to make someone's life, somewhere a little better.
