Success

I met Margaret late in the afternoon while taking a walk through the slums behind my accommodations in Kenya.  I was with a group of three or four others and she was preparing an evening meal for her grandchildren.  It was the only meal for the day, hot cocoa prepared over an open fire in the street.  The mugs were not clean, they were chipped – not the kind of thing you want to serve to a guest.  But there was no place for pride here as Margaret filled our mugs with hot cocoa, to the brim and overflowing. 

It can be amazing how the little things can have the most impact and measuring the success of our lives can be a precarious thing.  The fact is that the best thing we ever do could be quite insignificant in our own eyes.  It may be that we reached out to another at just the right time, perhaps we wrote a card to someone and this simple act made all the difference.  It may be that we sacrificed to ensure our child went to a good school and had the opportunity we could never experience, which led them to a great act.  My money is on taking hold of the opportunities, at least with the intent to make the best of every one.  And on this day it was Margaret who took hold of an opportunity.  She became my teacher and gave me an object lesson in generosity, faith and the importance of being connected.    

© Copyright Jim Loring.  No reproduction without permission.

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