One of my favorite things to do when I am out and about is to answer questions about the Bring Smiles to Seniors program. I have had an opportunity to do that a lot lately with the recent Lightning Community Hero Award and my involvement with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The question I get asked most often is how I manage to have a full time job, family life, social life and the demands of the program and do I ever get an opportunity for down time? My answer is always the same. While I do get tired like any normal person, all the evening and weekend time I spend with the program does’t sap my energy like normal tasks, because it feeds my soul.

Most of us need to work to survive and often in jobs that pay the bills, yet tend to be lacking in the self satisfaction area. I am lucky to be part of a company that does care about its people, celebrates success and allows you to have a work life balance. However, I have been in the work force long enough to know that that is not the norm. While most people don’t love what they do, there are some that actually do like going to work every day. However, even for those people there is often a hole that needs to be filled somewhere in their heart to complete them as a person. That is where the program comes in for me.

I have been in the drug management industry in one way or another for over 30 years. Managing prescription programs and connecting doctors, pharmacies, hospitals and medical records comes with its own rewards. Yet, it never quite rises to the level of feeding the soul. I was always looking for that one thing to complete me, to give me purpose and help me understand my place on earth and why I am here. That is probably the same for a lot of people. For me it finally came when I was 52 and dealing with my grandmother’s dementia in a way that I would have never expected. Almost three years later, while I am at times exhausted, I feel like I am emotionally complete and I have put the pieces of life together to make it whole.

Sometimes, we just need that one extra thing that seems to be missing. That one contribution that could be the piece of the puzzle that gives us what we need to round out what may be an already amazing life. It does not have to be something big or grand. It could be some small contribution to a larger cause that gives your soul that little bit of food it needs for nourishment.When you consider every card artist, donor, decorator, volunteer, civic, school and corporate participant in this program, you start to see how those individual pieces become part of something much greater. They are the almost 33,000 cards that we have delivered this year. As such, they are part of a much greater good.

If you are looking for that one thing that seems to be missing, I challenge you to seek it out. Give it a try and see if it is the thing that you have been looking for to help complete this amazing thing that we call life. I tell people all the time that my day job feeds my stomach, the program feeds my soul. I hope that you too can find that one thing that will do the same for you.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron