Today is Jan. 4, 2016 — the first Monday of the New Year.
If ever there was a time for this quote floating around on Facebook and attributed to Zig Ziglar, the American writer, salesman and motivational speaker who died in 2012 at age 86, it is today: A great attitude becomes a great mood, which becomes a great day, which becomes a great year, which becomes a great life.
As some of you know, at my day job, I help raise money and awareness for the nonprofit organization in my community that runs programs for the homeless and victims of domestic violence. And we had some fundraising success in 2015. But it’s a new year and time to do even better than last year. That may explain why I’m up so early today and ready to go.
Also, the long holiday weekend was filled with great days, which have already helped jump start the New Year.
On Sunday, I attended the service at Zion Lutheran Church in Muscatine, which gave $1,500 to MCSA for its Men’s Dorm and Domestic Violence Shelter. The church was beautiful and the service provided an opportunity to see friends I don’t see often. One of those friends, organist Charles Potter, did a fine job of directing the church’s hand-bell choir during the service. On behalf of MCSA, thank you to everyone at the church for your support. It is much appreciated.
On Saturday, some friends helped prepare and serve the free lunch organized weekly at MCSA by Loaves & Fishes, a non-profit, volunteer agency that has been providing meals for people in need since 1992. Loaves & Fishes typically serves more than 3,000 meals annually. We served about 40 meals on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who helped.
Both of these activities have helped me quickly forget about Iowa’s loss in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day — especially volunteering for Loaves & Fishes. If you’ve never volunteered to help those who may not be well off, I highly recommend it. For me, it’s a good reminder of just how fortunate I am.
Yes, keeping busy ate into some of my free time over the long weekend. But it also helped improve my attitude, which is a good way to begin 2016. Here’s to taking Ziglar’s next steps.
Brome Hill 