Contribution and Gratitude

Last night, I was reading Reader’s Digest (RD). I have always loved reading RD when I was young especially the humor sections. Along the years, I lost the desire to read. Since CV, I have rediscovered this love.

The contents of RD have varied to some degree over the year for eg it consists of more advertisements than I can remember. However, one section caught my attention ie a monthly article to acknowledge the contributions of people to the world.
In the January issue, The Asian of the year 2010 Award goes to a 63 year old Jockin Arputham who champions the poor. He spends most of his life to improve the lives of the slum dwellers in India.

His commitment, courage and most of all, the wisdom to accept that there need to be compromises and teamwork to make his vision possible has moved me. Excerpt from Reader Digest …”At one point in life, he was coming to the conclusion that large scale improvement in the lives of the urban poor was possibly only if strong community organizations cooperated with the government…...He met the director of an unusual Mumbai organization call SPARC set up by a group of profession women dissatisfied with traditional social work….He suggested that their two organizations join forces. It would be an unusual alliance between a street-savvy slum leader and an upper middle-class activist. But it was to prove enormously fruitful.”
He once told someone” if you don’t have faith, you shouldn’t be in this business”.

Excerpt from Reader Digest …..”He suffers from diabetes and had a coronary bypass. He owns practically nothing not even a bank account. In his words - This is my life. This is what I enjoy. My only prayer is that when I die, it will be at a meeting or while I’m walking in a slum or at a get-together like this.”

Now the slum dweller’s network extends to countries such as Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. It connects poor communities in 34 countries.

His story has triggered my desire to contribute more to the society. It also makes me realize that I need to do more than just an occasional donation or sporadic visits to the needy. We are living in a world where we are ‘conditioned’ to have scarcity thinking rather than those of abundance. We think that by giving more to others we would have less for ourselves. Thinking back, I had unaware applied abundance thinking. On these rare occasions, when I give more I receive also more – both tangible and intangible gains.

As for Gratitude, I am thankful for all the things I have now. Even though, it might seems to be ‘little’, I now know that I actually have abundance such as good health, supportive and loving husband, mum, brother and sisters, loyal and caring friends, alive with joy, all my body parts intact and so on and on…things which $$$ cannot buy. I am also grateful to experience CV environment and hence giving me an amazing extended family, rediscover myself and to see the world from a new and more meaningful perspective.
Thank you, God for the blessings you have bestowed on me and Thank you, Linda for bringing CV into my life…

May 12
The way you accumulate wealth is to get permission to continue interacting with the Universe and the people who inhabit it.’ (Linda Chandler)

We cannot change all of human nature but we can inspire through our own being for others to change their nature. (Linda Chandler)

Yes,Jockin Arputham has inspired me and I wish to meet him one day….