Charity

Today is the first visit this year to a nursing home which I have been bringing the children to since 2004. I try to make it at least one visit in a month. There was no one that we knew there when we first started going to the home. It is a place for mainly the elderly. I thought it would be a great place for the children to share their musical capabilities whilst learning about charity. It was especially useful for them to have an old but still playable piano at the home. Together with music from the piano, the kids would always bring along their violin to serenade to the old folks. I tell the children that one of the gifts of music is the joy it brings to those who get a chance to hear it and that they should share it.
It is important to do charity because it enables us to learn many things. We learn to do things not just for ourselves because in selfishness is when we suffer. When we are selfish, our world is very small. We become too absorbed in our self importance and are only concerned about our own feelings. In seeing the plight of others, we begin to count and acknowledge our blessings, of the still many things we can do with our abled bodies which we have taken for granted. We realise that when we see the old folks sitting around, some in wheel chairs supported by a strap around their torso tied to the wheel chair because they can't sit up on their own. The things that bother us become so small compared to the problems and the more dire situation of others. We become less sensitive to our egotistical emotions.
We also learn about giving loving kindness to humanity at large and not just confine ourselves to doing good to people we know. Our capacity to empathise will increase and helps us to cultivate compassion towards others.
We try to bring the favourite foods of Paul, one of the inmates. He sufferred a stroke and is not able to feed himself well enough. I would need to feed him and I must admit that it makes me a little uncomfortable to have my fingers touching his mouth. I guess it has to do with the fear of being in contact with his saliva. But in making myself feed Paul, I am 'forced' to move beyond my personal comfort zone. In confronting my fears, it gives me the opportunity eliminate one of my hangups and learn more about myself.
And finally it is for the joy we receive in giving. Of knowing that we have made a difference to the lives of ordinary folks on a Monday afternoon while we evolve our consciousness. We break the humdrum lives of old folks and the stress of the caregivers.
Try it. It is easy. Just take note of such homes for the aged or underprivileged children in your neighbourhood when you are driving. The next time, make it a point to stop at any of these places. Go in and have a chat with a total stranger and I guarantee you that you won't be asked why you are doing what might seem to you to be a strange thing that you are doing.