Purposeful Bloodletting


On Monday, I went back to my place of work to do something I had not done in over a decade. I went back to give blood.

Between 2010 and 2014, I volunteered to give blood to the Red Cross seven times. Not because I got nice squeezy hearts or free t-shirts or the free food and drink after the bloodletting session (not that those are not nice things to be given). But, because blood donation is really important.


So, the question is... why did I stop? If I know how useful blood donation is, what reasons did I have not to do so? Was it simply the difficulty of time commitments? That feels incorrect to me. Afterall, I did give blood all during the time of my mother's cancer treatments when time was less available. However, the bloodletting did stop after my mother's passing. So, much like the lack of putting up a tree for Christmas... did this activity also stop because of this event? It is hard for me to say that is the reason. Yet, I can't argue against this.

So, why did I donate this time? Besides the great importance of blood donation... is it like everything else I have attempted to do this year? An attempt to find some sense of normalcy. An attempt to figure out what is normal? Perhaps.


Is this a start of a restart to donation. I suppose, I cannot answer until I do or do not give another donation in the next year. But, giving is important. So, hopefully this donation is the dawn of a new day.

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