I sit here today, listening to the rain tap outside my window, and I find myself swept back to the same sound that accompanied a similar afternoon eight years ago. I love how sound can transport you like that. My heart was heavier then.
That particular March, I had recently returned home from a medical mission in Tanzania. There were 18 of us that went; half were medically trained, another half Orthodox and all of us with the same mission: to help. We went to seven different villages, set up clinics and served over 700 people. What transpired in those twenty days on the other side of the world changed my life forever. It’s a trip I don’t return to often enough in my head or heart, because the lessons I learned and the people I met impacted me more than anything has in the near decade since.
I saw a different way of life. I saw a different way of happy. I saw acceptance and hard work and unconditional love. All from a group of people who have nothing compared to what we have here. They don’t have shiny cars, they don’t have nice property or patent leather shoes; hell, some of them barely have roofs over their heads and some don’t have shoes at all. The people we met in Tanzania live simply yet fully. They are filled with love and Light and joy. Despite the hardships they face, every day they still choose joy.
I’ve been trying to live like them ever since. It’s tough, I must admit, with all the distractions here. It was really hard coming back to this life after living in theirs. But as I sit and listen to the pitter patter of the rain, I focus on what can be changed. What can I let go of, what can be released, to make room for the things that really matter…?
Would you change?
