CARE A LITTLE - CARE A LOT

[Guest guest]

CARE A LITTLE, CARE A LOT

Baba said, "Let us love and serve each other and be happy" in Sri Sai

Satcharitra, ch. XVIII & XIX.

Randy, a kindergartner, came to the school library one afternoon after class.

"See," he said, tugging timidly at my sleeve while extending a carefully

bandaged hand, :I hurt myself." A careful examination revealed no evidence of

injury – perhaps a small cut or bruise. "This bandage is getting soiled," I

told him. "Would you like to have a clean one?"

"Oh, no," he protested, hiding his arm behind him. "I’ve got to keep this one.

My teacher put it on for me."

There was such love and pride in his voice that I had to blink back with tears.

It’s a beautiful bandage, Randy," I said. "If your teacher put it on you, then

we won’t change it."

Randy’s parents are divorced, and his mother works long hours. An older brother

and sister are seldom home. I suspect he cherished that soiled bandage because

it eased the pain – not of a hurting hand but a hurting heart. Each time he

looked at it, there must have been an assurance that someone in his small world

cared.

Ours is a troubled, rapidly changing society. Yet one basic reality doesn’t

change: we humans are caring creatures. From birth to death we must care and be

cared for. Too often we think of caring in terms of impersonal gestures,

involving large sums of money. These have their place, but money alone can

never release a person from the prison of loneliness. More important are

countless small acts of kindness – bandages for the heart.

There are many ways to say, "I care" – the letter when it isn’t our turn to

write; a sincere "I’m sorry" when we’re not sure who was wrong; a warm smile; a

friendly word to a stranger. Trifles, costing little or nothing but coming from

the heart, they say, "To me you are a special person."

Psychologists agree that older people often become senile because they no longer

feel useful. We discovered this when grandfather came to say after grandmother

died. In deference to his grief, I insisted that Tom, our seven year old son,

not bother him. And, under pressure of daily chores, I tended to push him

aside. One day he was cleaning the garden. "Someone else can do that," I said,

steering him towards a lawn chair. "Just sit and enjoy the sun. It will do you

good."

But nothing seemed to do him good. Daily he grew more despondent. Then,

returning from an errand one afternoon, I found him digging and Tom breaking up

clods of mud with a small rake. "Grandfather and I are making a garden, "Tom

announced joyously. He’s made lots of them. He’s showing me how!"

I was about to protest, when I noticed that grandfather’s eyes were alert and

shining, and the old familiar smile was back. "Great" I said, "You two make a

list of the seeds you need, and we’ll get them tomorrow."

The garden was a source of considerable pride to both Tom and his grandfather.

>From then on grandfather has his full share of responsibility. He weeded the

flower border, filled the bird-bath, even washed dishes. And he remained active

and cheerful well into his nineties.

Today many homes are too small to have room for elderly relatives; and with

divorce rampant and commitments seemingly made to be broken, the number of

people who feel that no one cares has reached epidemic proportions. Never has

there been a greater need for us to show that we care.

A widow in our church had devoted her life almost exclusively to her two

children. When they married and moved away, she told her pastor: "My life is

over. The children don’t need me any more."

"Your children may no longer need you," he said, "but there are many who do. Now

is the time to find them." He sent her to a hospital ward where there were

toddlers who would enjoy stories she had once shared with her own youngsters.

There children were precious too. She discovered that when we reach out, the

world becomes as wide as we choose to make it.

"We all carry bandages in our hearts for the world’s wrongs. There’s not a

single problem that can’t be solved by caring". Each of us can develop a

capacity for caring if we make an honest effort. Habits of self-centredness and

indifference are hard to overcome. But if we daily make a promise to ourselves

to reach out to just one person, we’ve taken the first step.

(by Aletha Jane Lindstorm)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

To go to unpeopled places or to lie alone, is mistaken solitude, so long as the

body of this world, the seed is there. So long as there is a link with the

body, one continues to be attached to the world.

(Amrta Bindu. 54)

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya.......

What is the path that leadeth to the City of Light, the City of God?

Many be the paths that lead Godward. The essence of them all is in two things:

When the little self, the ‘ego’ dies, we enter into the Limitless.

The Limitless is Love – the all-living Love. When the Heart is pure, Love glows in the Heart within.

How should a man prepare to behold the Face of Love in the Heart within?

Concentrate on the Heart! It is a mirror in which you may behold the Face of

Love. But the mirror is soiled, is greased, and the reflection of the Beloved

is blurred. Cleanse the mirror of your Heart. Wipe away the impurities which

stain the Heart. The one great source of impurities is ‘ego’, ‘self’. When the

‘ego’ is annihilated, the Face of the Beloved is seen shining in the mirror of

the Heart.

(Sadhu Vaswani)

 

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