Limbs, limbs, limbs

Growing up, myself and my siblings all had chores and responsibilities to make sure that the house kept in tip-top shape.

Besides pulling weeds from the flower and garden beds, my responsibility insofar as the outdoors, I was responsible for maintaining the trimming of the trees and shrubberies. That is why it is so very irritating to me to see that some trimming needs to be done, especially when I am at a location where I am there often and there is no one maintaining those responsibilities – such as the shelter where I work 24 hrs on Sundays and 14 hrs on Thursdays.

I was raised to where, if you saw something that needed to be done, do it – which is so different from the majority of kids being raised these days. At any rate, I have been restraining myself from doing the trimming because the day staff kept saying that they had someone to do it.

Eventually, last Sunday I lost my patience because the limbs were so long that you had to walk around them to walk forward through the driveway or parking lot and they dragged on the top of cars trying to park underneath the shade. Finally, I found a pruning shear that I could use, but rather late in the evening and I went outside to prune away some limbs above the driveway. Because it was so late in the evening, I didn’t get around to picking up the limbs and throwing them away; I merely scooted them in a pile and out of the way of people walking.

Today, I picked up those limbs and moved to another area in desperate need of some limbs being pruned back so that cars could safely park under that tree in the parking lot without the limbs scratching the tops of the cars. In the process of picking up those limbs, I had twisted my back and was in sheer pain.

Because I am the only staff member on duty for 24hrs, I can’t leave the site to retrieve the medicine; however, a lady that volunteers to take some residents to Church on Sundays was ever so helpful in getting me some back pain medicine for me. Thank goodness. I couldn’t imagine going 24hrs today with that intensity of pain.

The good news is that the fruits of my labors were appreciated by the residents today and stated that the site looks better for my efforts. Although, the pain medicine isn’t working fast enough, there is gratification knowing that they do appreciate my efforts.

I am looking at the window and see more limbs to trim back and prune. Hopefully, I will have my own shears with me next Sunday, which are much more conducive to doing a great job without twisting the back from lifting heavy pruning shears above my head. I am ancy. I want to do it now; however, I know that I should let my back pain subside and heal. It will certainly wait until next week; the odds of someone else volunteering to do it will be slim to none!

I will probably get into trouble for doing what I did; however, it had to be done and no one was making any efforts to do it for themselves. Oh, well. I feel better that it is done and the residents do appreciate it as well – which is one of the reasons we are here (to aid the residents in their road of recovery from the cycle of abuse).



Do you ever feel compelled to do a job that remains to be done?
Do you ever feel that the chores and responsibilities you had as a child have carried over to what you do as an adult?
Do you ever feel that people would rather walk in a mess of things rather than to do something to fix a situation?
What have you done to ensure that things are done which aren’t being done for whatever reason?
Do you tend to get in trouble for going beyond your call of duty?