Mother Teresa and Valentine's day

 


"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."~ Mother Teresa

Ahh...love. Commercial style! With just a few days before Valentine's Day, the commercials are urging one and all to buy, buy, BUY! Chocolates, jewelry, cars even! Does a material possession really bring true happiness?
What I wonder though, is why the big ticket items that may put one in a budget crisis? And why just one day...?
One commercial has people of all ages in different settings looking in the camera. They implore the viewer: "tell me that you love me." "Tell me that I am beautiful." "Tell me that I have worth." I can't tell you what the commercial was selling, because as I watched that ad, I thought of how this portrays real life. There are so many people out there who just want to be validated!

 "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

There are those who use food, drugs, sex/porn, alcohol or cigarettes to hide what is really lost in their lives; namely, love, attention, caring and worth. The empty spaces need to be filled somehow! My neighbor, who is recuperating from surgery, has a 20 year old daughter who checks in on her. This girl is a "pleaser," she will do anything to get a positive word of attention from her mother and many times, doesn't. I also have been checking in on her mom. Two days ago, I sent this girl a text saying how good it was that she was "there" for her mother and how proud that I was of her. Later that morning, she came over with tears in her eyes. Thinking that maybe something had happened, I took her hand. She gave me an entreating look and thanked me for that message. In her words, "you can't know how happy it made me to wake up and see that on my phone. Thank you!" I hugged her as she held on fiercely, as if she were falling off a cliff.
She is that starved for a positive word.

"Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home."

 If you have ever been to a nursing home, it seems as if the residents there are just biding their time. They may have no one to visit them and the staff are too busy to give them anything more than a passing glance. It's sad to think that they have lost the will to live. I think of how animals in a zoo must feel the same way. 

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."

 Instead of getting all caught up in selfish desires for yourself, take a moment to think of another. Is there someone who needs your words of love more? A visit? A phone call would go so much farther than roses that are overpriced and will wilt in a few days. A memory of a good deed will last forever!

  "Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."

 There is a celebrity who recently went to court in Hawaii to change paparazzi laws, so that when "relaxing," they will not be chased by reporters and cameras. How convenient. I say, "let them chase you, and let them catch you doing something for another instead of just doing something for yourself. Give them something to write home about!" How wonderful it would be if these celebrities, instead of worrying about every wrinkle they need smoothed out, would smooth the brows of those who have no home, no food--no hope. That would be worthy of talk...don't you think?
Be that example today...don't put it off.


 "I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?"