Namaskaram!

The first Malayalam word I learned when I arrived here in Kerala was namaskaram. It is a word used to greet others but has much more depth and meaning compared to an ordinary hello as would be said in the English language. The word has its roots in Sanskrit and means the divine soul in me respects the divine soul in you. What a beautiful way to encounter one another. What an even more beautiful word to live out. As I approach nearly six months here in India with Profugo and reflect on my experiences, it is the Truth and the call to action this word presents that I see interwoven in the experiences I have had here.

We live in a broken, suffering world. There is brokenness in the village here in Prashanthagiri and there is brokenness in the wealthy neighborhoods of America too. Domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and family hardship are harsh realities that affect the lives of the Prashanthagiri community as well as in the U.S. Our neighbor’s husband, Sunni, was a dialysis patient and passed away this last October. An already poor family, his wife Rajani and their three children Layana, Sooraj, and Nandana live without a father in a male dominated society. One of the children here, Amal, was paralyzed from the waist down after a surgery went wrong. I often find myself asking, why? Why are there so many terrible things occurring in our communities across the globe, and why does God let this happen? Just the other day I saw our young neighbors, Appu and Sooraj, immediately run over to a group of three old women struggling to climb up the church staircase. They helped each woman up one by one. Amal gives me hope every time I see him greet me with a wide smile and see how he chooses to love even after what has happened to him. Like the rhythm of the traditional Chenda drums here in Kerala, God is steadily pounding on my heart, encouraging me to see that each and every one of us is His response. We all have the divine within us and it is each of us that have the ability to sow love rather than hate. Poverty, suffering, loss, and brokenness is much larger than I can wrap my head around but I have learned here, to at least strive to do something about it, whether it be through natural resource management projects or even just the little things.

Life here has presented me with a challenge. It is a challenge to see, respect, love, and embrace the divine within me and the divine within others. It is a challenge to love my neighbor and the earth as myself and to see all as one. I fail to love others often and each day I am challenged to realize this and change. Through our projects here at Profugo and through random acts of kindness I hope to live out namaskaram. No matter who you are or what community you are a part of, I hope you join me too, in striving to love our brothers and sisters next to us and our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away. We are broken, but it is love that we are created out of and it is love that makes us whole.