A lesson for lifetime

‘Service to humanity is Service to God’. This is the lesson learnt by every Social League Camper.    But this is not the only lesson we learn. On our trip to ‘Mercy home’ at Nanjanadu, The Nilgiris, on the 19th of November 2019, we learnt life’s lessons. We set off with our donations on that morning by 9:30 a.m. in our school bus. On reaching there, we finished our prayer and had given a program for the inmates. We also enjoyed the beautiful dancing and singing of those chosen people of God. We had the morning and afternoon to spend with the people of the home for the aged. We can never forget the time we spent with them. We listened to their stories and saw them enjoy little things. The fact that they kept pointing at the statues of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and called them their father and mother, and their immense love and care for one another touched our hearts. They saw magic and found joy in every little thing that we barely notice. They didn’t care what others would think of them, they did what made them happy and also what make others happy. They taught us to share what we have, especially happiness. The thought of them being in the Mercy home because of their disability and age is a depressing one. Almost every inmate there had children who had abandoned them considering them to be a burden. This made us feel how important our parents are and we would not commit that sin of abandoning them.

The smile and happiness our presence brought for them was worth a billion. It ignited something in us; we could not explain a sense of achievement. When they held the hands, the touch was out of pure love; the laughter, out of pure joy and happiness; they were so real and so genuine. But, all good things come to an end, so we had to leave the home after serving them lunch. Even miles away from the home our thoughts were still there. We came back with hundreds of memories and lessons. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. This was our first step to our journey to be kind, spread joy, happiness and love and to make this world a better place to live in.

S. SWATHIKA
STD X