I’ve been thinking about the unexpected side of life quite a bit recently. It seems that the unexpected – good and bad – is no respecter of persons. Things sometimes just happen. Unfortunately, for the people around me it is the bad side of the unexpected that they are experiencing presently. I am sad to say that at the moment I know far too many people who are dealing with extremely sad and tragic events in their lives. I am extremely lucky to say that I have not had to deal with any of these tragedies directly, but I am so sad for the challenges that some people around me are faced with. That being said, I did get to experience some unexpected events today. I am lucky enough to have two wonderful children: a little girl who is 3 and a baby boy who is about 13 weeks old. They are so great and such a blessing to our little family. My little boy has been a sick for a couple of weeks and this morning we took him to his doctor who referred us straight to Primary Children’s Hospital, the result of these two appointments being that he is having a surgery tomorrow morning. It seems to have all happened in a bit of a whirlwind and he is going to be fine; it is a standard procedure and nothing to worry about. Hopefully this little surgery will make all the difference and he will be back to his happy little self soon enough. This experience, combined with the much bigger experiences of people around me, has made me think about how quickly things can change, how quickly things can be out of your control and how quickly life can be turned upside down. By this point, I am sure you are probably wondering what this has to do with the work of Community Action. Although I’m not sure that there is a direct link, I think that maybe something I can take from these experiences is hope. I hope that this surgery will make my little guy feel better, and I can only imagine that for others hope is what is keeping them going through their harder, and more significant, unexpected events. Hope is one of the main elements of Community Action; it is what sets Community Action apart. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a champion of Community Action, recently said, “Drug companies won’t give them hope. Utility companies won’t give them hope. Banks won’t give them hope. Community Action Agencies give them hope and give them a reason to hope. That is what is so great about Community Action.”

In short I am happy that I have hope in my life, and I am proud to be part of nationwide effort to give hope to others.