Five dollars!

This week, being unemployed, I have been splitting my time between resume writing/job searching and working on our remodeling project. Wednesday afternoon, as I was working on the house, I took a break to chat with my neighbor across the street. He is in his sixties and is recovering from pneumonia. I found this out earlier in the week when I called over to his house to check on them when I noticed the leaves piling up... not like Mr. O. at all! He is independent and hard-working, and often waves off my offers to help him. Mr. O. mentioned in Wednesday's conversation (not as a hint) that he needed to try to get his adult granddaughter over to help with the yard.

After our conversation, Dylan and Zachary (6 & 8) looked like they needed a project to occupy them, so I suggested that maybe they could help Mr. O. out by raking some leaves for him, since he's not feeling well. They got excited and ran to the garage for the rakes... if only they'd get that excited about raking my leaves! Our family thinks a lot of Mr. and Mrs. O., so I'm glad they were eager to help him... and I figured he'd have a harder time telling them he didn't need help! I took them over and got them started, and I could see most of Mr. O.'s yard from where I was working. I checked on them periodically, and they were doing a good job.

I wanted them to do the project to learn about helping others. I did not expect them to be paid, nor did they consider getting paid. We were just trying to help out a neighbor and friend. However, knowing Mr. O., I should have known better. When they finished up, they excitedly came home with five dollars, each! I hope they still learned a lesson and I hope they won't expect to be paid every time they help someone out. I think they got it. But, I had opportunity to reinforce the lesson today.

I cleaned my gutters this afternoon. While I still had my ladder and blower out, I asked Mr. O. if he would mind if I cleaned his gutters, as well. He hesitated, but let me do it. His wife was at work, and as I was finishing up, he had to leave to drive his daughter to an appointment. His yard isn't that big, and I figured I could get the leaves raked before he got back. The boys came over to help me, and as we were raking, Dylan asked me if I thought Mr. O. would pay me. When I said that he already had, Dylan looked surprised. With wide eyes he said, "he did? when?" This, I thought, was a perfect opportunity to finish driving home the lesson that started a few days earlier. I answered, "he's paid me with his friendship, he's paid me when I've needed to borrow a tool, he's paid me when he watches our house and waters our garden when we're on vacation, he's paid me when he moves my empty trash cans off the curb when I'm at work... it's not always about money." It was one of those experiences when you could almost see the light bulb coming on as Dylan said, "yeah, I guess you're right... I didn't think of it that way."