Thank You + Doing The Unsexy Stuff

Y'all, 

First I'd like to say thank you to everyone who supported my half birthday fundraising for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. So far we've raised $655! And it came from family, friends, old coworkers, and readers like you. If you want to donate you still can here, but even if you don't consider volunteering or donating to your local food bank.

On Friday I went back to the food bank for a volunteer shift, sorting potatoes. If you've never had to pick through a palette full of tubers, allow me to paint the picture: a literal heap of potatoes, like maybe 1,000 lbs worth, in a giant bag on a pallet. And it has to be broken down into smaller bags so that they are usable to the folks who come to the food bank. I inspect the spuds, and put about 5- or 10-pounds worth of them into the netted bag and then move on to the next. It is repetitive, boring, and kinda stinky. Unsexy, even. But necessary. Because if the potatoes don’t get sorted, it makes it hard to quickly and easily distribute them to people who need them.

We take for granted how important the unsexy stuff is. The devil in the details knows that people do not want to read the fine print, and so he hangs out there. The Crowdstrike fiasco is a perfect example of this. Systems all over the world were down, hospitals impacted, flights grounded, because of something as mundane as a software update. Getting the little things right takes intention. As someone who personally hates dealing with "admin tasks" – paperwork, washing dishes, minutiae – doing the unsexy stuff is hard. But as I get older I see how crucial it is to building the life I want and the world I want to see. Let that slide for too long and things can get messy real quick.

Anyway, I hope you are taking a moment from all the unprecedented times we are in to do the unsexy things that will make your life better in the long run. Cook the food you have instead of DoorDashing. Drink more water and move your body. Floss. Connect with people. Organize whatever you need to organize so your week can be decent. I promise you wont regret it.

Terryn

P.S. I went blueberry picking this weekend, and now I have 3 qts of berries that idk what to do with. Please give me recommendations!