I will confess I am a volunteer/PTO junkie- no not one of those "highly-competitive-i-have-to-do-everything-mom"s- but I am an "always-sucked-into-a-good-cause-mom". When the blue volunteer forms come home I can't help but sign up. I guess I have come to appreciate the power of small and simple things. This week I was on Box Top clipping duty (you know Box Tops for education) my thankless job is to trim the box tops (removing the extraneous cardboard flash that remains when parents careless tear them off the cereal boxes and then to sort and bag them in groups of 50). These scraps seem insignificant, worth a whopping ten cents. But put them together and (after two rounds of collection in the fall yielded almost $3,000 dollars for our little town's school- yes $3,ooo - 10 cents at a time). This principle extends to opportunites. I can't help but teach the after school enrichment classes- helping kids learn to paint and while the money raised goes to playground equipment, books for the reading programs, science programs, etc.? Or gather donations for the town education foundation auction (thanks bose for the wave radio!) Yes I know i don't rock the world with my actions- but i am content to believe if we all took care of our own gardens the world would be a paradise.
I know women, mothers especially, often don't feel they make a difference. They feel like those tiny little 10 cent box tops (especially the torn around the edges ones with food remnants on them). Each kiss we leave as we tuck our kids in at night, every time drive them to lessons, or volunteer to help that teacher, or bring dinner to someone -- it all adds up to sums and products we can't imagine.
We never think we'll be the important one, the person who changes the world. We live to much in a world of big fame, titles, and celebrities. For me, I'm content to make my mark in life one little box top at a time.
I know women, mothers especially, often don't feel they make a difference. They feel like those tiny little 10 cent box tops (especially the torn around the edges ones with food remnants on them). Each kiss we leave as we tuck our kids in at night, every time drive them to lessons, or volunteer to help that teacher, or bring dinner to someone -- it all adds up to sums and products we can't imagine.
We never think we'll be the important one, the person who changes the world. We live to much in a world of big fame, titles, and celebrities. For me, I'm content to make my mark in life one little box top at a time.
12 comments:
That was a beautiful post, thank you for that.
I love it!! So true . . . just little drops in the bucket will make all the difference later on. :) Thanks for the reminder!
First timer here, hello. Love this post, you've empowered me! "...it all adds up to sums and products we can't imagine," so true, so true.
I totally know what you are talking about... been there before. I save all mine and now, after experiencing it, cut mine perfectly. Wouldn't it be pretty amazing if every family saved their box tops?
Excellent point. Keep cutting!
oh i love this!... "I'm content to make my mark in life one little box top at a time."
We do this, too! Our coordinator sent home forms that hold ten at a time. I try to clip them as neatly as possible :-)
My friend oversees the box tops for our local elementary school and was trimming them at scrapbook night. I am one of the careless moms that just rips them off the box. I never realized there was a special way to cut them!
I too am a volunteer/pta junkie. Box tops, Campbell's soup labels, old cell phones and empty printer cartridges. I even have my mother saving from her home and business. Wonder where I get it from...
And you're right, 10 cents or 10 minutes of your time - it all makes a difference.
What a great reminder. So often the little things seem so insignificant but in the grander picture, I tend to think they're what really matters. And I have a nice little Ziploc full of boxtops that I need to get to the school. I don't have a kid there (yet) but as my sister says, "It's an investment in their future."
Well, said, smart mama. Well said.
Thanks, that's exaclty what I needed today. Just like one of my favorite quotes (I've forgotten the author) "The little things are infinitly the most important".
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