Hi and thanks to Kristen’s good advice, we had a nice heart to heart. Turns out there are some challenges at home and this volunteer is acutely feeling the pressure of a very sick and very elderly mother. She is under a lot of stress and cannot help but bring that along with her. She does know we care very much about her and remarks that she really wants to come in to get away. It’s a haven.

I should have instinctively known this. I saw her changing before my eyes and did not delve deeper. She is pretty much a private person and I give her that space. Honestly, I don’t know if she would have told me had I asked her what was going on, but I should have tried. Sometimes I get too business like. I’ve seen other volunteer managers get way too involved with their volunteers and then go nuts with all the personal involvement. And, if I’m perfectly honest, I used to be that manager. Might explain the being nuts part.

But there is a happy medium. I need to reconnect with my dewy eyed first year of volunteer management. An old hardened manager is not necessarily the better one.

So, I learn again!  That is one reason I love this job. I’m always learning something about either the world, people or more scarily, myself.  I really wish I could learn to do this job perfectly. Well, maybe not, because then, there would be nothing new to learn.

thank you all for making me feel part of something really important.

-Meridian