Rediscovering the Journey

We have heard in the Gospels saying, "The foxes have their holes, the birds have their nests. But the Son of Man does not have a place to lay his head". It was only to mean that he had no specific place "as his own". When I left southern India in 1986 I thought I would be just traveling, probably with a bag, going around villages and towns, brings joy and God's love in hundreds of houses. I never thought I would be doing some "settled" works. The last weeks have taught me, actually Jesus is right. I do not need to be settled to do what is good. In the last 40 days I have never been short of place to sleep or to eat, as people have always wanted me and my help in whatever good thing they want to do. I have traveled from the top of Himalayas to the Sunderbans, from Kolkata to some of the most undeveloped villages in West Bengal, from the corners of a seminary to some of the families of friends of other religions. I have had no problem in staying or in serving the poor. The last month has seen me supporting the building of the houses of 12 very poor people who could not even gather the broken tins and roofs the tornado left in April 2010, starting an early warning system, that can be expanded across the country and can be made multi-lingual, and conducted special trainings and facilitation for over 10 days covering 100 persons in the 40 days, besides motivating several others.

When I did not need to sleep on a bed, I found the trains and buses as comfortable places to lay my head. And I have always found time to wash and iron my clothes, giving me enough time to refresh myself. Soon, I would be in more places, with the poor, the vulnerable, teaching them the art of surviving disasters, improving their livelihood and educating themselves to have access to government resources.

It doesn't matter...if I have a home or not! The world is my territory, and all people in it are my own.