Volunteering pays off – in books

Talk about a dumping of snow!  I guess we got almost 30 cm’s from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. 

In the morning, I got up for an early appointment at the hair dressers.  I looked out at the garage and had some serious concerns about getting my vehicle out.  There was a drift between 2 and 3 feet deep beginning about a foot back of the door.  It was a good test for the four wheel drive capabilities of my CRV.  I made it out and got to my appointment on time.  None of the city streets had been plowed yet at that early hour.

Later in the morning I went over to St Mary High School where I was to volunteer to work in the canteen for the basketball tournament.  Most of the games went on, although several of the out of town teams cancelled or left early due to the road conditiions.  The work in the canteen was very slow.  I had intended to bring a book for such an eventuality but ended up forgetting it at home.  When I got to the canteen, the other volunteer just happened to be the school librarian.  When I told her that I was fine with it being slow ’cause then I could read but then discovered I had forgotten my book, she began to ask what I liked to read.  “Well, actually,” I said, “I like reading non-fiction best and am in the middle of a lot of books right now.  But a lot of what I read is classed as spiritual, I guess.  I am reading some Nouwen, some Yancey, some Merton and the book I was intending to bring was by Annie Dillard and it would be classed as literature, I guess.” 

Next thing I knew, we were in the library.  Parents are allowed to borrow books under their students name.  So I came away with a couple that look interesting:  Holy and Human, Mystics for Our Time by John D. Powers and No Strangers To Violence, No Strangers To Love by Boniface Hanley.  I was disappointed that they didn’t have some of Merton’s writings other than The Seven Storey Mountain.  Now I have a couple more books to add to the books I have started reading.  I’ve got to finish some of the ones I’m working on.  But they are not the sort of book to just sit down and read quickly.