Day 54: Volunteering

I'm grateful for opportunities to volunteer for a variety of events and people. I'm grateful because for the time I am engaged in the volunteer activity I am not focused on me. Let's face it, so much of our time is focused on us. I'm not saying it's all bad but I don't know about you but I sure do get sick of myself. I love how volunteering gets me out of head for awhile, how it takes the focus off of me, how it can put my struggles in perspective, and sometimes...just sometimes a fun surprise comes out of volunteering!

Like this from my volunteering tonight at the Steven Curtis Chapman concert...

In case you are wondering that's Steven Curtis Chapman and I. ;)

Fun surprise from volunteering at the Show Hope table during his concert that night.

Comments

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

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