The Justice Bus in Delaware 

Yesterday was a day I could not have foreseen under any circumstances. I won't call it a bad day: it wasn't. But it was certainly a challenging day.

Yesterday was the monthly Justice Bus downtown. The Justice Bus is a program of the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation and one that Andrews House, our local community gem, partners with (along with our County Law Library). Having been involved with the various legal clinics at Andrews House for the last 20 years, I am a huge supporter of the Bus and am the Bus attorney wrangler. That means I send out calls for attorneys to volunteer 45 minutes of their time advising low-income clients (household income has to be 300% or less than the Federal Poverty Guidelines). We run four sessions back to back once a month; our Bus focuses on family law issues running the spectrum from divorce questions to custody to child support and beyond. 

Our volunteers are fantastic, period. They give their time, in person or by Zoom; they commit to show up month after month; and you can see the change on clients' faces when they walk out of their sessions having been given some direction and advice on their problem.

I always double-check with the attorneys the Monday before the Bus to make sure they are still available. These are attorneys with active practices, some of them practicing solely in domestic relations, which is a very fluid arena. An emergency hearing may come up since the attorney committed to a Bus date, for example. Again, all part of my taking care of our volunteers.

We knew coming into the May Bus day that we were thin on attorneys as a few of our regulars had conflicts. Tuesday I got an email from one that he had to schedule a client meeting for Thursday. I totally understood. I emailed Shelly and Mel at Andrews House, who prescreen the clients and set the schedule (walk-ins are heavily discouraged because we cannot guarantee an attorney will be available), and asked them what the presenting issues were in that time slot. (I try not to advise, but can in a pinch. This was a pinch.) There was a matter I felt comfortable with, told Mel to slot me in, and we'd see each other Thursday. 

Thursday I arrived early at the Law Library to talk with my friend, boon companion, and, incidentally, the Law Librarian, Judy. The Bus, which comes from Columbus, had not yet arrived; it was running a little later than usual. Not a problem. When I saw it pull up,  I walked down to greet the team. Plural. Instead I saw the Program Manager, Meredith, all by herself. Singular. I knocked on the window and asked, "Uh, so where is Scott?" 

Scott, it turned out, had texted Meredith that morning to say he was sick and could not work. He is an attorney and we had slated him to meet with clients. Now we had a hole. A big hole. One that Meredith, who is not an attorney, could not fill. 

I swallowed hard, looked at Mel, who had just arrived and learned the news, and said, "Show me the clients and I will advise the ones I can."

Which is exactly what I did for the rest of the morning into early afternoon.  I ran on only 2 small bottles of water and no break and no food and....yeah. Don't get me wrong: I was so very grateful I could serve but dang, that was a huge hit on my energy. By the time the last client finished (my last client talked a lot. A. LOT.) and the paperwork was finished, it was 1:30 (we usually finish around 1:00). Both Mel and I said our goodbyes and thanks to Judy and Meredith, stumbled out of the Law Library, and walked together towards our respective homes. After she turned left to her house, I walked another very slow 2+ blocks to mine. 

Very. Slow. 

No surprise, I was pretty wiped out for the rest of the day and the evening. Our household has been on overload for weeks now on all fronts; yesterday's Bus was overload in a way I had not expected. But I read thoughts in two other blogs I follow that helped put my day in perspective.

The first was from Sam, who blogs at Sam Squared. In summing up her week's thriftiness, she spoke about a couple of things that were not frugal, but then said, "[b], everything spent was for good purpose, so I guess that meets my definition of thrift." 

"Spent for good purpose." I like that. I knowingly spent my energy past my limits yesterday, but it was for a very good purpose, and I can accept that. These clients are in circumstances that are rarely pleasant, and sometimes (and this was the case yesterday with one I met with) that make anything I am dealing with, including my health, feel like I have riches beyond riches. 

The other comment came from Chris, who blogs at Tahoe Girl. On Thursday, she posts a "Thankful Thursday" post and her most recent one contained this gem: "Having gratitude for the small things in life, I think, makes all the difference in the world."

That, too, applies to yesterday's Bus experience. Grateful because it was the first Bus I have been well enough to attend (except for a cameo appearance in December) since August 2023. Grateful that I was able to walk home, however slowly, afterwards. Grateful for my friends and colleagues. Okay, maybe those are not all small things in life, but given that this blog is titled "Small Moments of Great Reward," I totally agree about gratitude making all the difference in the world. 

And, for one such small moment of gratitude and great reward, the spiderwort is blooming. The first bloom was three days ago; today, there are several. 

The first spiderwort of 2024

I am grateful I am here to see them return.