It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life...

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.     Ralph Waldo Emerson

Even though it is a Thursday it feels like a Friday, since the Fourth of July holiday is tomorrow, so we treated it partially like our non-home repair Fridays. We had one home repair site, the flooring site we started yesterday out past Pineville. Floors can be tricky so the beginnings are a bit slow, but now we should be ready for a lot of hammering.

The other sites for the day included St. Vincent DePaul, the Itmann Food Bank and some repairs and cleaning at The Way where we are staying. Each of these placements offered a change of pace from the busy, hot week. Great work was done at every one of them and the volunteers enjoyed their time together.

Celebrating the 4th a little early, we had a cookout for dinner tonight. Burgers, potato salad and all the fixings. It is also Jenny's birthday so we finished off the evening with an ice cream cake to celebrate.

With July 4th tomorrow, volunteers were given the option of leaving in the morning instead of leaving on Saturday morning since we won't be on sites tomorrow. That means tonight's reflection was a closing. The closing reflected on moments, looking back over the week or two weeks here and sharing a significant moment with the group. It is the culmination of all these small moments that create a lasting memory.