Thank you for your post -- it was very good. When I am workint, whether it is volunteer or for pay, I do feel a sense of satisfaction both in giving of my time but social satisfaction that I get nowhere else. In my volunteer capacity I work with a few other women who also want to give something to their community and we have a great time just talking as we work together doing mailouts. Since being diagnosed with sz and having to cope with all of the related problems, I have had one place of employment-for-pay that really met my needs and expectations. Fortunately, someone offered to train me in the floral business while I worked at their store. Since I had a degree in art, they were aware I knew a lot about symmetry, color, design, etc., and would likely be a quick study. Nothing was ever so much fun as doing floral design for the public. I would actually have worked overtime for free if they had let me. I looked forward to every minute there, even when I did the grunt work of watering all the plants inside and out, bleaching the floors, dealing with difficult customers (my specialty,)etc. By the end of my tenure there, customers were asking for me by name when they placed orders. But, alas, I needed accommodation on my hours because I could not work late then get up early the next morning. I told them I had sz and the accommodations were made, but from then on I was treated like an outcast and ended up taking a boot out the door. Others manufactured complaints against me; I always told myself they were probably really sorry later that I was gone, because I was the one doing most of the work! Anyway, when you find the job that really fits and brings you joy, nothing could be better. It makes the other areas of your life shine, too, because you have self-confidence and poise that a arises out of out of a positive self-image and the congratulations and thank-you's of others. Carolyn