I am blessed, and I didn't even know it.

Now, however, I do. For, you see, yesterday, my friend coach td, or Tim, called me just after 4pm looking for someone to give him a hand. I, of course, agreed almost instantly. I'd helped him out a couple of weeks prior with some errands related to his job at Easter Seals. This background will help you with understanding this whole story so I'll provide it, now.

You know those shows like Storage Wars where people bid on the contents of abandoned storage units in hopes of finding hidden treasure in the form of collectables, or guns, or vehicles, etc? Those storage units are everywhere. At year-end 2009, a total of some 58,000 self storage facilities, owned by 30,235 companies, have been developed in the United States on industrial and commercial land parcels. There is more than 2.35 billion square feet of self storage in the U.S., or a land area equivalent to three times Manhattan Island under roof.¹ And, hundreds of them are abandoned every day. And, as you see on the TV shows, they are often auctioned off. In some cases, the entire unit is auctioned as you see on the TV shows. In other cases, the self-storage unit owners allow the auctioneer to rifle through the contents of each of the abandoned units and salvage any/all items of value... any value. Those items are auctioned off individually at auction houses and the proceeds are sent back to the self-storage location owner after the auction house takes a cut.

So... what's left after the auctioneer goes through the units?

• Bags of clothes
• Mattresses
• Broken Furnature
• Books
• Broken kitchen appliences and washers & driers
• Personal items such as photograps, trophies
• Broken children's toys
• Stuff

As I mentioned, Tim works for Easter Seals. So, from time to time, he gets calls from the local storage companies informing him that they have a group of units that have already been picked clean by the auctioneer. At this time, he's welcome to go and claim anything that can be used by the various charities. So, that's what I helped Tim with a few weeks ago. We visited 3 or 4 different storage places and, at each one, we rifled through 6 or 7 units looking for anything that could be used by Habitat. Mostly, we were picking up mattresses, box-springs and bed frames. We loaded them all into a Habitat owned truck. When we were done, Tim took the truck and parked it back at Habitat's facilities and they did whatever it is that they do with the items we had collected. It felt good to know that I'd done something to help people who were less fortunate on the backs of people who had fallen on some misfortune, themselves.

Jump forward to yesterday. Tim was on his way to help out someone who had just had a rather fortunate turn of events. Well... sort of. This woman, who was not much older than myself, had recently been in a long-term care facility. She probably thought she would never leave that facility. Her health was that poor. Then, suddenly, she got better. She was discharged! Hurray! Right?

If only it were that simple. Since she had no family in the area, and no friends to lean on, she didn't have any place to go. She didn't have any posessions of her own. It had all been unnecessary when she was in long-term care. Now what?

Now, people like Tim, local churches, local charities, bigger charities like the YWCA/YMCA, and the community you live in all step up to help out where they can. Someone had gotten her an appartment so she had a roof. Someone had helped her get food stamps so she could eat. Someone helped her get some toiletries. Someone - Tim specifically - helped her get a bed. Yesterday, we delivered that bed and some bedding.

When we left this appartment, she had a bed. She had a bed and some corner shelves with religious nick-nacks. She had a box with some papers in it. That's it. No PC. No Laptop. No iPad. No TV. No Radio. No cell-phone. Nothing to sit on. No dinner ware. No cutlery. Lucky her, eh? Well, she did just get a new lease on life, so she has that. She has that, and a bunch of people who give of themselves every day to make lives like hers just a little brighter.

Just before we left, she handed Tim a list of items. This was a wish-list that Tim had requested. It was written on a styrofoam cup because she didn't have any paper to write on.

I am blessed.

I am blessed, and I didn't even know it.