Opening A Vein

I gave blood today. And now I feel sick. That is something that always seems to happen to me. Many people have questioned why I continue to give blood when I always feel sick after I do so. The explanation that I am a rare blood type never seems to be enough.

I personally don't like needles. I don't like the idea of things being sucked out of me. I don't particularly like the feeling of giving blood. But I do it anyways.

There are many things in life that we think we should do. Volunteering, spending more time with our family, investing more time in our relationships, give more money to charity, give more for others. The only problem that we have when it comes to wanting to give more for others is that we draw strong boundaries. We draw boundaries of how far we are willing to go in order to make our goals a reality.

We are only willing to go far enough to not involve ourselves. When it comes to the point we are really involved, when we make sacrifices, and we might get hurt, we seem to pull back. That is where we are willing to stop. We are not willing to change our lives in anyway to help other people and we are certainly not willing to focus our lives around the life of another person.

It is amazing the lengths people go to to avoid being hurt. They will retreat into a life that is created to cater to themselves. The people allowed in that life are monitored to the extent that they will be able to hurt and to change. I have learned that the greatest part of being hurt is then being able to change. When there is no reason to change, there is no change. No change leads to no growth and a static existence. That's just not quite as interesting.

Many people do not donate blood because they don't have time. Some don't donate because they don't like needles. Some don't donate because it makes them feel sick. I fall in all of those categories, but I still donate. It is always worth it to open a vein. Sometimes the rewards are few. Sometimes the rewards are great. Sometimes the rewards are unseen.