In preparation for writing this update, I emailed Theresa asking if there was anything recent she had found particularly inspiring. While she did write back with some wonderful items (more on that when we launch the beginning of Bridge Walk season in early July!), I realized the absurdity of my question. You mean other than watching 1,000 children come and go from the property every single day, now seven days a week, smiles on their faces, suited in uniforms ready for school? Other than the 36 members of the cooperative arriving at 6:30am to begin the charcoal fires to cook nshima for the whole Living Compassion community? Other than the gratitude expressed by the team members every day for the opportunity to do something they are so passionate about and that pays them enough to support their families? Other than the pump that sits in the middle of the property and brings clean water to hundreds of families? Other than…?
Yah, yah, I mean besides that. Something new.
I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes, by Aldous Huxley: Most humans have an almost infinite ability to take things for granted.
Years ago I remember hearing Cheri use the analogy of listening to a favorite song on the radio. The habit is to turn it up, make it louder, bigger. It rarely occurs to us, she pointed out, to turn it down and to listen more attentively. This has been a profound teaching for me. When we slow down, pay wholehearted attention to what is HERE, in front of us, the extraordinary is revealed in the “ordinary.” Bliss.
I invite you to take a moment to slow down, get HERE, and to receive the extraordinary in the “ordinary” everyday happenings of Living Compassion in Kantolomba.
Perhaps next time we find ourselves searching for the special, the inspiring, we might ask ourselves, what isn’t?
In gassho,
Jen