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Be My Light
by Skye Moody
Liv Fun: Vol 8 – Issue 3
The train from Calcutta to Darjeeling climbs high into the Himalayan foothills where bright-green tea plantations and Buddhist stupas mark the scenery, piercing lofty clouds just 150 kilometers distant from Bhutan, the country of the “Gross National Happiness” index.
On September 10, 1946, a slight, fragile figure was riding this train from Calcutta (“Kolkata”) to Darjeeling, when the “call” came to her. Albanian by birth and a school-teaching nun from a convent in Calcutta, she didn’t question the call’s mystical origin nor consult anyone for an opinion, because the call came from the highest authority she knew.
Upon returning to Calcutta, Mother Teresa informed her superiors of her intentions, took up a nursing course, and from cloth of white cotton bordered with three blue stripes she fashioned a simple Bengali sari, the uniform she would wear for the remainder of her life. At age 44, the tiny woman with the enormous call quit the security of her convent and ventured out alone into Calcutta’s appalling slums, where the Dalit, the Untouchables, the “outcastes” live and die in appalling poverty. Teresa’s single purpose in life would be hands-on caring for these lowly victims of a caste system that today still numbers some 300 million Untouchables, despite India’s constitutional laws banning the caste system.
Unprotected, she witnessed horrific conditions but never hesitated to reach out to the sick, diseased and dying masses. Guided by that mystical voice, Mother Teresa would never turn back.
Liv Fun
by Leisure Care
Autumn 2019
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Be My Light
by Skye MoodyIn 1946, a slight, fragile figure was riding a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, when the “call” came to her. A school-teaching nun from a convent, she didn’t question the call’s mystical origin nor consult anyone for an opinion, because the call came from the highest authority she knew.
Living With the Losses of Chronic Disease
by Laurel Saville
Advances in medical care have given each of us the promise and benefit of longer, healthier lives. But, paradoxically, because we can cure, treat and manage diseases that were, once-upon-a-time, deadly, these same advances are also giving many of us longer, unhealthier lives.
A Season of Transition
by Alisa Sauer
From the summer sun to crisp autumn days, nothing symbolizes change better than fall. For many, it’s a time to set new routines, go back to school, and maybe elect new governing officials. The colors are changing, the scenery is changing … life itself is changing. A period of transition between the long, warm days of summer and the cold of winter, fall is nothing if not a season of change.