Good morning, winter is in the air, and I saw my first Christmas decorations in a store yesterday! Yikes!
I was in a meeting yesterday with some colleagues from the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education and one of our working group asked if she might share a story. I’d like to share it with you.
It seems that one day, Mother Theresa was being interviewed on a chat radio show about a particular project she was involved in. The host of the radio show had a huge following, and was quite taken with the small, vibrant woman sitting next to him. He asked, “Mother, there are a lot of people listening right now, this is a great opportunitity to invite change, what would you have us do?”
The Mother said, “oh, no, no, I’m not hear to tell you what to do, that is not what this is about.”
The host pressed on, “but this is a great opportunity to have people paying attention to your message, what can we do?”
Mother Theresa said again, “I’m not here to ask for anything from you, nor to tell you specifically what to do.”
Back and forth the conversation went, the host inviting Mother Theresa to speak to his huge audience, and Mother Thersa each time saying that was not what she was about.
Finally, in response to his persistence, she said, “all right, if you are compelled to do something, go out into the world and find a person who has no hope, and give them hope.”
What would it look like for you to give someone who has little or no hope, hope this week?