Wednesday whatever-Giving back

Wednesday Whatever, HA! Funny right? Anyway, I wanted to share something with you all that happened to me last night.
So it's been snowing up here, a lot. And the base housing office will give you a "ticket" if you don't clear the snow off your driveway and the sidewalk within 24 hours of snowfall. More often if necessary. So Monday night I went out and shoveled 4 inches of snow off the driveway (btw, did you know that an hour of snow shoveling equals 700 calories burned?) and my neighbor across the street was shoveling with one of those all plastic crappy little shovels. I always cringe when I see one of those, sure it costs much less than a good shovel but it takes you at least 5 times as long and it doesn't really get all the snow off anyway. And if any of it is packed down, say from your car driving in and out of your garage, forget about it. It just can't get it off. Anyway, so after I finished mine, I walked across the street and offered to help the guy with the crappy plastic shovel. He said no thanks, about 3 different times. Then I offered to let him borrow my shovel, "no thanks, I'm buying one of those tomorrow" Okie-dokie dude. If you want to do everything the hard way, who am I to stand in the way of your happiness? :P So it's the next night (Tuesday) and it had snowed a little bit, not a lot so it wouldn't take that long. I get all bundled up, start up my ipod and start scraping the tire tracks (I do the hard stuff first, makes your lines easier) so as I'm going along I notice a little lady (meaning short and petite) scraping a driveway two doors down from mine...and she had one of those crappy plastic shovels (honestly people, it's Alaska, you'd think we'd all know better by now right?) so I finish up the tire tracks and I look back over at the lady and I just get one of those impulsive feelings. So I stop doing what I'm doing and walk over to where she is chipping away at over a week's worth of driven on snow. She looks up and asks, "Can I help you?" I said, "Actually I was wondering if I could help you." She says yes. I was happy because I like to help people. And we are both scraping away and I find out that she doesn't actually live there, she is the supervisor of the guy that lives there. He is deployed and his mother lives there with his kids. She's got chronic back arthritis and I met her a little later, she was also bald, which usually equals chemo and cancer in my head. I was floored. Here was my neighbor, I had no idea that she needed help, and I followed a feeling and it ended up being a blessing for this lady. So I helped the supervisor. We scraped that darn driveway in negative 10 degree weather for over an hour. I brought over my shovel and my heavy duty ice scraper. I was thanked several times by both Mary (the lady who is living there) and Dana (the supervisor) and it was nice. I like helping people but it's really nice when it's someone that really needs the help. When I was done doing that driveway I said my goodbyes and walked back to my house and finished shoveling my driveway. I was on such a high. Helping each other is what we're all here for. We're all in this together. I told Mary when she said thank you "tis the season" and it really is. November means being Thankful. For me, when I'm focusing on what I'm thankful for, I want to bless others too. Charity means more than giving money to the Salvation Army, it's being willing to be out scraping for an hour extra when I could have had mine finished and back inside in 15 minutes. I'm not trying to toot my own horn because I am far from perfect but I just wanted to say that sometimes what someone needs is so simple and easy to give, you just have to be paying attention and be willing to listen to that feeling. I hope during this season to help many more people. :)