Most Saturday mornings I'm up early to accompany my younger daughter to the stable where she volunteers.
This morning I was up at six to drive my older daughter to the current site of Habitat for Humanity where she volunteers. We headed east on Lawrence and drove until we damn near fell off the map before we finally reached her destination. Then we parked and she gave me a bit of a guided tour around the site, pointing out some aspects of construction to me - from weeping tiles to party walls - explaining things as we went. Red-winged blackbirds and big machines played counterpoint to each other in an early morning symphony that provided a background for out roundabout.
She introduced me to people already there and I was able to put some faces to names I have heard repeatedly in her stories of the work site. There is a camaraderie there that you can feel right away; a fellowship that I think is probably there to a degree you might never get in an office setting. Maybe it's the physical aspect of the work. I don't know why exactly but I felt I could, in small part, get an understanding of why she likes so much to be a part of that world.
I was pleased to have her show me around. I came away feeling privileged to have had that time with her, and happy that she wanted to share a bit of her "world" with me.