Just Begin - One, One, One

Apparently Mother Teresa of Calcutta was the theme for the week. She has helped me a lot with her infinite wisdom.

It's very interesting to stare into the blank faces of high school seniors that are participating in a service day helping clean apartments of seniors and the disabled in low income housing.  How do you capture their attention and explain to them being present to the people they are serving is far more important than their cleaning ability?  How do you explain what subsidized housing is and the feeling of not being able to afford paying rent?  I do my best to explain in the most simple terms of subsidized housing, but try to convey the message of service through the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends. -Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Later that week I realized that candy was the real answer, as I tabled at the same high school explaining Help of Ojai's volunteer activities and what we did as an organization.  The candy was there for anyone, meaning I was frequently chosen as the organization to fill our their assignment on.

Mother Teresa came into play again as I started a new project this week helping connect low income seniors in the Ojai Valley with the Rotary Club to home improvement projects around the house.  I did my first home visits, scheduled my own appointments and was on the phone with mobile home park managers constantly.  How am I going to get this all done by Monday afternoon?  Well of course I looked to Mother Teresa again and I just begin - one, one, one.

“I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time - just one, one, one. So you begin. I began - I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand....The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin - one, one, one.”

-Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I should clarify, I am not saying I'm Mother Teresa by any stretch of the imagination.  We can start by simply saying patience is NOT my strong suit.  But we do begin one, one, one.  I completely humbled myself this week when realizing I was not being a present person, like I had asked the high schoolers to be.  I was having the opportunity to go on these home visits and made the mistake of scheduling them back to back.  My goal was to do an intake and take pictures of the projects needed to be done.  What was more important?  Making those visits much longer so I had the opportunity to sit and talk with each person in the way they wanted and deserved.