Dr Layne McDonald on Blogger

Lots of organizations coordinate youth community service work.  And you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would oppose the idea of kids pitching in and helping make the community a better place for everybody to live.  It suits the community because we are using the youth's boundless energy and physical stamina for a good cause.  It is ideal for the causes that have been helped because the work has no end.  It is perfect for kids because it allows them to think about other people, gives them a strong sense of self-esteem, helps them learn new skills, and will enable them to meet others in the community they might never meet otherwise. But when those in leadership at the local, state, or national level propose some form of uniform mandatory community service for youth, it seems to change the nature of the program so dramatically that the discussion turns sour pretty fast. It might be that the term ìmandatory community service has a negative connotation because, so often, that

Whether it is you who is approaching those golden years we call retirement or one of your loved ones is in those years, no question making that transition from the working world and decades of responsibility and hard work is not always easy.  The sudden change of lifestyle and the feeling of no longer being helpful is one of the most challenging aspects of retirement and growing older.  When you combine that with reduced activity and the natural decline in physical ability that aging brings, you have a powerful emotional transition. That is why people who actively counsel the elderly have learned that the most positive thing a person can do to combat the depression and sense of ìuselessnessî' that plague retirees is to make themselves useful. And there is no better place for them to do that than in community service. There are a variety of reasons why volunteering among the elderly is a great idea. If you are in a position to counsel an aging family member or friend, it is importan

Each year, as the Christmas season begins to go into full gear, we hear the complaint that Christmas has become commercialized and that we have forgotten its true meaning. î  When we make that observation, it must come from a nostalgic time, perhaps when we were children, and we remember that Christmas is about the sacrifice of the Christ child and that the gifts we give reflect the gift of life that God has brought to us. Even if Christmas is not full of religious imagery, the stories, carols, and traditions of the Christmas season point to values that are more about giving to each other out of the heart and being together as a family than the economic side of the season and the hustle and bustle that can weary the soul more than bless it. That is why it might be time to try a different kind of Christmas this year.  If you feel that your family has gotten too bogged down in the commercial aspect of the holiday, maybe there is way to remind each other that Christmas is about giving bet