By Jillian
My 17-year-old daughter recently spent a week in Mexico building a house for a single mother with six children. She went on the trip through Live Different, a non-profit organization dedicated to hosting Canadian high school students on humanitarian trips to build facilities for people in need around the world. Last year, she went to the Dominican Republic, which was still in the throes of intense trauma from the Haitian earthquake. Her trip included a heart breaking day spent in the local garbage dump, picking out recycled products from the trash with locals who do this every day to feed their families.
With these two experiences, my daughter’s compassionate humanitarian heart has been awakened by the local people she’s met from these struggling countries. It’s amazing what her group has accomplished in a very short time frame to make these people’s difficult lives easier. She’s also been profoundly touched and inspired by them. The children are open, friendly, affectionate, and their parents self contained, grateful, hard working, and humble. She’s fallen in love with the people she is “serving” and, in the exchange, been served herself.
She has formed connected, passionate, and close relationships with her fellow students on these trips. United by the pay offs of hard work and generosity, these students become a “family”, connected not by blood but by heart. A deep intimacy forms between them, a palpable one even to those of us not there, that seems to transcend beyond just the shared experience but becomes one of the shared value of living in the moment- loving, laughing, feeling, doing, giving, receiving, experiencing.
Removed from the routines of school and the distractions of technology, they are present to each other and to life. It’s no surprise that deep romantic relationships form from the trips as two souls normally busy with school and social pressures are freed up to see each others’ true heart, authentic spirit, and feel bravely supported to pursue love. Indeed, love and connection become the priority.
I’ve found myself deeply inspired and captivated by my daughter and her friends as they share and digest from their trip. They are like a bonfire, alive with their experience and their connection with each other. I’ve learned from them and felt my own inner 17 year old come alive in response to their desires and passion. I wish that their and our daily lives could offer this sort of transformational experience all the time with every moment felt as a meaningful one.
I feel that the Divine invites us to experience life this way; to let in love; to feel passion; to allow our desires to arise; to serve; to receive. That we can go on a “trip” any moment to share our hearts and our gifts in exchange with others. We can prioritize intimacy and connection; we can feel alive and purposeful rather than deadened by routine, obligation, and achievement. We can appreciate life as a gift rather than a burden.
Thank you to my daughter, her friends, and the Live Different folks for bringing this reminder of the sacred nature of life and the human heart this week.
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