The challenge of volunteering

Nature has a way of tossing 

Beauty into unexpected places: 

My neighbor used to call these surprising gifts 

Volunteers. And — ideally — 

Isn’t that what volunteering’s like? 

So often an attempt to bring some light 

And/or beauty to dark places? 

How sad it is, when the light we bring 

Never seems to be enough, 

 Or gets extinguished, 

Or when others only add to the darkness…