{"id":102,"date":"2016-07-18T06:23:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T12:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2016-07-18T06:28:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T12:28:23","slug":"when-you-just-want-to-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"When you just want to help…"},"content":{"rendered":"

You likely know the feeling. You\u2019re afraid to turn on the news because something else happened in the world. Dallas, Orlando, Minnesota, Baton Rouge, Belgium, Syria, Turkey, the Middle East, France x3. You watch in\u00a0horror, trying to make sense of it all, and feeling completely\u00a0helpless.<\/p>\n

You just want to\u00a0DO something.<\/p>\n

After Orlando there was a cry for help. The city needed blood and amazing numbers of people from Orlando showed up and rolled up their sleeves to give. I didn\u2019t really hear these sorts of requests after the other tragedies \u2013 at least not on the US. Blood doesn\u2019t stay in it\u2019s own town \u2013 it travels, so when an emergency happen, blood reserves are often depleted across the country.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I realized that, until I gave blood in April and a few weeks later I received a note stating that my blood went to a person in Valdosta, Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Orlando shooting happened just a few days after my mandatory 30-day waiting period after we had traveled to a Zika-zone. I tried, but I was turned away due to my iron level being a little low. I was bummed, went home, and at a bowl of lentils.<\/p>\n

So I made another appointment, and by coincidence it fell right the Dallas police shooting. I received a call the day before from the Red Cross, stating that Nashville\u2019s level of A+ was at extremely low levels. People need blood. Hospitals need blood. For 24 hours, I read labels to find what foods would raise my iron levels. I went to the gym early. I drank extra water.<\/p>\n

And then I found out about a malaria outbreak in the DR, which takes me out of the blood donor pool for a year.<\/p>\n

A year. I was heartbroken. Giving blood is such a simple act with life giving results.<\/p>\n

My friends \u2013 I challenge you. Could you give blood in my place? It\u2019s easy, takes about an hour, and they give you snacks. (Hint, the blood drives at churches definitely have the best food!) Just call 800-Red-Cross or click here<\/a> to make an appointment.<\/p>\n

So now what? What\u2019s a tangible way for me to help in the wake of crisis?\"waterbottle\"<\/p>\n

I resorted to this.<\/p>\n

Today, this is enough. I chose to refill a water bottle. No plastic in the trash. There\u2019s not as much fanfare as giving blood, but every small positive decision has a ripple effect.<\/p>\n

So I cut myself some slack and drank a bottle of water. Water tastes better when it\u2019s not in plastic anyway.<\/p>\n

What do you do to make the world a better place? Please share below — and let me know if you choose to give blood!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You likely know the feeling. You\u2019re afraid to turn on the news because something else happened in the world. Dallas, Orlando, Minnesota, Baton Rouge, Belgium, Syria, Turkey, the Middle East, France x3. You watch in\u00a0horror, trying to make sense of it all, and feeling completely\u00a0helpless. You just want to\u00a0DO something. After Orlando there was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,38,52],"tags":[127,130,129,125,128,131,132,124,126],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-hacks","category-motivation","category-thoughts","tag-blood-donation","tag-clean-water","tag-do-good","tag-give-blood","tag-give-life","tag-make-a-difference","tag-monday-motivation","tag-recycle","tag-red-cross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fdt8-1E","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wandertruenorth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/give-blood.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}