Mitzvahs Given And Received Elita Sohmer Clayman

My friend Jill Rosenthal Bass wrote me a note and said this “My philosophy volunteering is a work of heart. I gain so much out of helping others.” These are great sentiments and I adhere to that feeling.

I feel, I am volunteering in writing articles to encourage everyone regardless of their now age to go out and do things for themselves, to make their lives happier. Also, to help others too any way they can, no matter how small or how large the task is. I feel when I am in the encouraging article mode that is my volunteer work. I have had many readers and fans write to me stating that I do encourage, inspire and motivate them to do things they have never thought to attempt.

My friends Steven Behr and Mary Peterson teach people in Hawaii to dance and they go there every year. My friend June Simon gives of her time to be a hospital volunteer in Florida. My lady friend Dolly Rosen transports people without cars in her own car and takes them to doctor’s appointments and pays the expense of gasoline herself. My friend Victorya Nelson in Colorado speaks to groups of seniors on how to have fun without spending a lot of money. All the people are volunteers in different ways and they give of their time and money to help others. It is a good feeling and one we all should have whenever we can.

Dr. Marc Honig and his fifteen year old son Evan are in Honduras now, giving of their time and knowledge, helping people to receive eye exams when they may never have had one in their lifetime. They are bringing used eye glasses that were donated by people here to help folks there have some eye glasses to improve their sight. This is an extraordinary example of good souls, Marc and Evan.

There are many ways to help others and it does not have to cost you a penny. You can go to a senior center and help serve the lunches there or answer the phone. If you have a hobby, you can give a talk about the hobby and perhaps instill in someone, even one person, to follow in your footsteps and to take on this hobby. All of these, giving of yourself your ideas and skills are called doing good for others (mitzvahs).

Doing a mitzvah is a blessing on your part and a blessing to the receiver. Years ago, I knew a hairstylist, a man, who went to nursing homes, once a month and cut the hair of the ladies to make them feel pretty and he charged not a penny. He told me he remembered when his own grandmother was in a nursing home and he would visit her on Sundays and do her hair. All of the other ladies were a bit envious of his old grandmother, so he got the idea he would once a month try to do as many as possible in a few hours with at least a haircut or trimming. One old lady told him she would thank him by taking him out to dinner and showing off how nicely he trimmed her hair. It made her feel happy and pretty and that was a good feeling to someone shut-in like that.

Some people I know volunteer by serving meals in a senior center. They come in and prepare the ready-made food and put them in plates, set the tables and bring the food out to the seniors visiting the center for the day. That is their volunteer work and they enjoy doing it. I have volunteered to help young people compose some creative writing samples and I will read them and comment on the story or article and perhaps help them to get them put in a booklet of young people’s writing this summer. I can give them ideas to write about and help them to search their childhood for various happenings to them, which would be of interest to others.

I know a young woman who wants to be a chef and she is teaching about six young girls and one young boy how to bake desserts. She brings them into her mom’s kitchen in the family home in D.C. and they start from scratch and she shows them how to bake cupcakes and how to decorate them and then she gives them an assignment. It is to bake a cake or a batch of cupcakes at their homes and to bring them in the next day to her home. Then they all taste the desserts (yummy) and they critique them, eat them and have lots of fun. Then they write the recipe up and she puts them in a booklet, like a cookbook that she puts together on the computer. On the last day of the six week course, she presents each one of the bakers the booklet with their recipe in it; a picture of the finished dessert and a picture of the person who baked it.It is really cute and something for them to have forever, showing how one summer they took a cooking class in her home. The cost is small and is just to cover the ingredients and it is about fifteen dollars for the six lessons, which is really a tiny amount.

Whether you are baking some goodies, chauffeuring someone around, reading their creative writings, trimming someone’s hair or anything you do volunteering, then this is a mitzvah (good deed) and you are a mitzvah giver. In return, you will receive happiness, security and contentment for being a mitzvah giver and then you automatically become a mitzvah winner. You have won a great achievement, giving to others and as Jill said “you will gain so much out of helping others”. She said “volunteering is a work of heart.”

Working your heart to sweeten someone else’s heart is a heartfelt attainment. It is sincere, genuine and impassioned. In my all-time favorite movie, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, William Holden says to Jennifer Jones “if I do not return, we have not missed you and I. We have had the many splendored thing.”

So do we when we give of ourselves to others, we are feeling the many splendored thing in what we have done and will continue to do.