I recently went back to read what we’ve shared about the project over the years; the earliest communication was from 2005!
What struck me as I was reading was the attention to the detail of what was being shared—the descriptive captions for the photos, the daily posts for the trip blog, the focus of the monthly updates. As I continued reading, that attention translated into an experience of love – and I was smiling nonstop. That feeling really is the experience of this project, and it shows up in so many ways.
It shows up in Theresa as she attends to the details she gathers every single day about what is happening in the community. It is astonishing how much information she tracks about each member of the cooperative, the thousand children who come to eat each day, and the young women and girls in our program.
All of that is shared with us during our weekly calls, where we try to ensure we are attending to what is most pressing, what needs further review and consideration, what new items have arisen, while always keeping in our awareness the items we want to bring back into the conversation when needed. And though there are decisions to be made, they are not made with urgency—they are made with care after gathering all the details and giving space for the conversation to assist with answering “What now?”
And this is shared with Sangha through our monthly updates and weekly project updates, filled with photos and captions that help us feel as though we are right there with the community! And then there is the attention Sangha brings to taking the time to read what has been shared.
What a gift to have the opportunity to see this in action over the more than 20 years of this project. As has been shared in our Practice, attention is the highest form of love we can offer.
And there is no clearer example of that than the work we all do together with and for the community in Kantolomba.
Gasshō,
Sreedevi
