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Thursday’s Inspiration Information — Mother Teresa turns 100!

aaron published on August 26, 2010 in celebrity and zeitgeist. 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.  It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” -Mother Teresa

August 26, 1910 Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in a small town in Albania.  19 years later, as a young novice nun, Agnes arrived to India as a missionary, and very quickly dedicated her time to working among the sick, dying and destitute.  In 1931, she took her full vows as a catholic nun, adopting the name Teresa after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.  For 15 years she lived in the convent, a devout disciple of her spiritual calling.  But in 1946 she experienced the “call within the call”:  she was to leave the convent and help the poor… while living among them.

Thus was Mother Teresa born — the iconic women of charity, who’s lifelong labor of love has spread in a million ripples, inspiring multitudes around the world.  Everybody knows Mother Teresa, her name is as ubiquitous  as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  The very mention of her triggers sensations of kindness and hope.

Today marks Mother Teresa’s Centenary birth, a day of much celebration and praise around the world; and especially in the 610 orphanages and and schools which she built in the poorest slums in 123 countries through her Missionaries of Charity.  And while most focus on the impact Mother Teresa has had in the world, the sheer number of children she has lifted from the black well of poverty, the depth of her religious and moral devotion; the international fame of her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, and the resulting saintly status she has achieved,… I want to focus the microscope, to take a more intimate look at the quiet spirit of a woman who gave her entire heart to nurture happiness in others.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

What I find so incredibly inspiring about Mother Teresa is not the tremendous impact her actions have ignited (though these are of course great sources of inspiration), but rather the humble origins — the small intimate sacrifices of her actions.  You have to remember that before Mother Teresa became the wise, wizened old women of contemporary symbolic stature… she was just a ordinary teenage girl, who left her small town in Albania to travel to the remote, exotic world of India.  Think about that for a second.  Consider the inner strength and courage it takes to leave behind the comforts of family and home at the age of nineteen, never to see your parents again.  To then throw yourself into the dirtiest, poorest, and dangerous slums on earth, on your own as a gori- a foriegn white woman, with nothing to offer but  some food, a smile, a hug.

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing

The miracle of Mother Teresa stems from the humility of her gestures.  She never set out to change the world, just to help the person in front of her.  And as such, she selflessly put herself always in the place of most need.  In her own words: “My mission is to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Little by little, one life at a time, she worked to spread joy and shine just a little candle flicker of light.

Even in the face of overwhelming and infinite poverty, fighting a war that can’t be won, she never gave up.  Even in the depths of a personal spiritual crisis, in the dark cellars of despair, she never stopped.  This is a woman who gave her life in service to church, to God, to the meek and the voiceless.  Who stood tall against crippling waves of loneliness.  Who offered a haven of peace (in 1946) even as violent civil war broke between Muslims and Hindus. Or stepped in at the height of the Siege of Beirut (1982– at the age of 72) to rescue 37 children trapped in a hospital between Israeli and Palestinian lines.  This is a woman who assisted radiation victims at Chernobyl, earthquake victims in Armenia, and starving orphans in Ethiopia.  Who lent her hand, person to person, and never let her beacon-light waver, even when it seemed she was all alone in the darkness.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

Today then, on her 100th birthday, we honor Mother Teresa not just for the impact she has made, but also the example she has set.  Inch by inch she has raised the bar of humanity to a height for which we should all aspire.  And she did it largely, amazingly, all on her own.

And for that we are eternally grateful.

Thursday’s Inspiration Information –Mayor of Skid Row

aaron published on January 7, 2010 in zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”                                                                                                                                          –Emma Lazarus

Nothing gives me more pleasure than to start out the new year with an outrageously inspirational story, one which encompasses all the many elements of redemption and hope.

Meet the “General” — Jeff Page, LA’s only elected “homeless” official.  In a time of economic recession, in a nation racked by debt and job loss, in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, in the city of Angels (and more often than not… Demons), on the street with the highest homeless population density in America — lives the unofficial “Mayor of Skid Row”.

The fact that he’s tall (6’4″), handsome with the muscular build of an NBA wholeset (indeed he was a star baller in highschool), and wears a suit jacket and tie might throw the generally wary and prejudiced public for a loop .  But make no mistake, Jeff Page IS homeless.  And he’s out to change more than just people’s perceptions.  He’s busying changing lives.

Jeff landed in Skid Row three years, after a string of hard times combined with mental and physical disabilities forced him to the streets.  Crammed with addicts, ex-convicts, post-traumatic veterans and other social pariahs, Skid Row is considered, and resultantly shunned by many, as the most desperate and dangerous neighborhood in America.

But that’s not how Jeff sees it.  To him, and to the thousands of homeless who call this square-mile home, it’s a community of people trying their best, just like anywhere else.  And even though they’ve hit rock bottom, just like anywhere else, people want to be recognized and respected.  They want their voices to be heard.  In Jeff’s own words: “The bottom of the barrel doesn’t have to be that deep.”

So Jeff adopted an activist attitude and determined to make a difference.  He began small, walking the streets and jotting down broken street lights, towering trash heaps, or clogged storm drains.  He then fired off emails to city agencies and officials from borrowed internet kiosks around downtown.  To his surprise, he got few replies but lots of action.  The city responded to Jeff’s requests by sending out crews to fix lights and clean out trash.

Empowered, Jeff expanded his one-man campaign to bigger platforms.  He organized community street cleaning events, mural beautification projects.  He took charge of security at the homeless shelter he moved into.  Petitioned Nike and LA city to renovate Glady’s park, a rundown drug and prostitute-haven into community center with a basketball court, bleachers,  exercise bars, chess tables and water fountains.

From there, Jeff was elected as Skid Row representative onto the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, where he advocates homeless rights, such as education for homeless kids.  He’s reached the highest halls, yet still walks the streets everyday, watching after people and helping as many as he can. It’s his mission to turn this outcast neighborhood into a decent place to live. A place he himself as already set permanent roots.

Talk about small things with great love!   No one is lower on the totem pole of the American psyche than homeless people.  You see them everyday, just like anyone else.  But you don’t wave, you rarely stop, and you never ever make eye contact.  Why do we ignore the homeless?  Why do we make deliberate efforts to avoid them?  Is it simply because they smell bad, because they demand food, money, attention from us?

Or is it something deeper, more primal.  The realization that we with our comfy homes and steady jobs are only the tiniest push from the edge.  That when it gets right down to it, there is almost nothing that separates us.  We are all human, all struggling, all trying to get by, to live our best lives.  And sometimes the chips fall away and you cartwheel over the edge, with no one to catch you.  No one to cushion your fall.

The scary truth — we are all one or two pay checks away from desperation.

All the more reason then to applaud Jeff raising not only himself, but his entire community into the light of public awareness.  And yet, to not need or even demand our help, but to take action himself.  To inspire his whole community to get involved where no one else will.  And to infuse hope and promote self-empowerment in a place often filled with hopelessness.

Should we all be as resilient and compassionate as Jeff Page, the world would be a better place.  Starting with us, starting with our small sphere of communities.  And expanding wide.

“General Page”, Superforest salutes you!