Give a Gift

March is a month I've missed in the many years of working as a tax professional. By the first of the month we were always swamped with returns to prepare and no matter how diligently we applied ourselves, the stack of work to be done never seemed to shrink by month-end. We barely noticed the passing of the Ides or even St. Patty's Day and if Easter came early, it was very short-a few hours on a Sunday morning to attend services.

Now that I'm no longer an employee, I schedule my work more to my liking and this year we'll note the Ides and have a corned beef dinner in honor of St. Pat. I may even invite a leprechaun to dinner!

This is is a transitional month in much of the world-it buffers winter and spring or summer and fall, depending on the hemisphere and in many countries it also bridges dry and rainy or vice versa.

I believe it's also a psychological cusp and a good month to take a mental inventory. That makes it a great time to consider some volunteer activities. This column aims at an audience on the Internet and that denotes some affluence. It's probably not as much as we each might want, but it's far more than many less fortunate than we. Let's take a few moments to count our blessing and ask how, now that we have received, we might also give.

The possibilities are endless. When I chose this subject, I typed "volunteer opportunities" into one search engine. I received pages of sites, more than I could look at. There were many repetitions (the Scouts, both boys and girls, were listed many times) and some sites were regional, but the balance provides more than enough to go around.

The wonderful thing is the diversity of the positions available to us. We no longer are limited to wearing dresses and shirts with candy stripes or armbands with a red cross. We can plan a vacation around a stint of campground hosting or other park work; man crisis lines or stuff envelopes; deliver meals to shut-ins; work with animals or children or the elderly and infirm; walk for fund-raising as well as exercise; and travel to various projects anywhere in the world.

Volunteering leads to wonderful fellowship and healthy growth while we perform a service that will ultimately benefit others. There's no better bonding experience than when everyone's working together, but if solo is your preference, there are opportunities for that as well.

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