Riverview Self Storage

Holiday Season: A Time to Think of Others

Christmas can be pretty bleak for some and very Joyous for others.  Sometimes in our lives we just need a helping hand or just a warm smile and someone to listen to us. This holiday season I would like to encourage you to reach out, maybe take the whole family to a senior citizens retirement home and listen to some good stories. Perhaps you could stop by a shelter and lend a hand. I have a few suggestions as to how you can be a positive and encouraging influence in another person’s life. Cornerstone Community Outreach are always looking for volunteers, donations and friendly faces to help homeless mothers, children and single men.
Friendly Towers Senior Housing houses Seniors and they could always use a friend or someone to help serve meals or hand out presents over the holidays.
Remember Riverview Self Storage gives all year round so when you store your valuables with us the finances you provide are going to something good just by storing with us! Please continue to help others throughout the year you will feel better for it I promise!
-Marty Phillips/Manager

Here is a story I wrote Hope you enjoy it.

The Boy and the Shell

There was a boy who lived on a beach near the ocean and every morning his mother would collect the boy’s shovel and bucket and a lawn chair and head to the beach. The boy would construct great castles that would touch the sky (so he thought for he was a boy and boys have great imaginations.) After his glorious constructions he would often wander the beach (in his mothers view of course) looking for wondrous shells to put in his pocket or listen to. Shells of all colors and shapes would be spread across the beach and he would pick up each one and listen to the roar of the great ocean and imagine all sorts of sea adventures (because that’s what boys do, they have great imaginations.) One of these shells was quite bulky and chipped the color had been worn away from years of water, sand and sun. The boy looked at it and thought, this is not a pretty shell and it seems a bit broken. He picked it up anyhow and put it to his ear. The boy’s eyes lit up like a firecracker and a silly grin crossed his face (as only boys can do) and he listened. A roar and smashing of waves in-cased the young boy’s ear and his mind wondered to distant lands of Pirates and Sea Monsters and treacherous storms. This was an amazing shell, thought the boy and he put it in his pocket and went home with his mother and put it high on his shelf in his room.

I saw her out of the corner of my eye in the apartments I have been living in. I saw her on the way to work to do very important things or when I would go out for a coffee (because that’s what grown-ups do.) I had met very colorful and beautiful people in my building but she was very old and frail as though time had taken its toll. Her face looked like paper that had been wadded up in your hand a few times and re-opened over and over. Her hair was a dull grey and she was quite plump with a dress that looked like it had some faded floral design on it. She wore a sweater over her shoulders that looked more like an old doily for a coffee table than a sweater. She looked up at me and for some reason and I sat down next to her on the bench and she began to speak. I had a glitter in my eye as she began to talk and a smile on my face (as adults get sometimes.) The adventures she told of her life and her trials intrigued me to ask more questions. She told of great sea voyages and true love and stories that were more interesting than pirates, dragons or cowboys. She informed me how I could stay clear of the trials of life by making the right choices. I walked back to my apartment after we talked with her words in my heart.

The boy’s friends would come over sometimes to play. He took his friends to his room and showed them the shell he had found. One friend stammered, “It looks pretty beat-up.” The boy explained this was a pretty shell if they would just listen to it. The boy’s friends just wanted to play. They were not interested in any shell. So the boy and his friends went out to play and pretended to be pirates and fight dragons or be cowboys (because that’s what boys do they have great imaginations.) When the boy’s friends had gone He returned to his room before dinner and went up to the high shelf to bring the shell down to listen to but it slipped from his hand to the floor and shattered. The boy stood there stunned for a moment then slumped on the floor to survey the damage. As he looked at all the pieces he noticed a very bright piece in the corner of the room. The boy picked it up and looked at it in the palm of his hand, it was a pearl. This is the music maker, thought the boy. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. What was inside was so bright and pretty to the boy that He went to dinner to share it with his mother.

I went down to talk to a friend of mine who happened to be the maintenance guy at the apartment I lived in because I had some problems with my door that was sticking. He informed me he would look at it. In the corner of my eye I notice the older lady and asked my friend to sit with us and talk. My friend said he had more important things to do and she looked pretty old and would probably not want to bother with us. I tried to explain to him how amazing her stories were but he just shrugged his shoulders and asked me to help him carry out this big bin of garbage, which I did (because that’s what grown-ups do we are very busy.) When I returned I walked over by the bench but the lady was gone. I asked the apartment’s security guard where the older lady on the bench went. The guard softly replied, “She just fell over off the bench and the ambulance came… I don’t think she made it.” I stood there stunned by the news. Then I slumped down on the bench looked in the palm of my hand, thought about when I was a boy… and smiled. -M.P.