You Can Help
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi
At first, Dev didn’t want to do it. Standing in a line of people he didn’t know, filling boxes with tin cans and packaged food for struggling families. But his school required what they called “community service,” and a whopping one hundred hours of it. He’d been putting off getting his last few hours done, and now he was stuck with this. The line of strangers and boxes.
People all around him were friendly, chatting with newcomers and each other. There were a few kids he recognized, no one he really knew. Nobody had a cell phone out, which was odd, but then again, everyone’s hands were busy. Pick up a package of beans, wedge it beside a can of corn, and tuck a box of rice nearby. A couple of teens were exchanging stories about their community service work, and they smiled over at Dev. The work wasn’t glamorous, but folks seemed happy to be doing it. One afternoon a month spent putting together food boxes for delivery to homeless shelters and low-income housing developments.
He listened to the voices, often interrupted by laughter. The woman on one side of him was talking about hiking up the nearby hills. On the other side, a man was happy that his kids loved reading Harry Potter. Then one older man, face full of whiskers and shirt full of holes, spoke up to say he was living in a shelter. That he’d be eating dinner out of one of these boxes. That he was trying to help someone else have dinner, too.
Dev shifted from foot to foot, a little uncomfortable. He was here because he had to be. He’d leave soon and go home to a big dinner and dessert. Everyone else seemed to be here because they wanted to.
Then Dev did a brave thing. He listened. He heard the stories moving up and down the line. He saw that the people around him felt good about spending time doing something for someone else. Dev began to feel kind of good about it, too. (Plus, there was a chance he’d make a new friend or two.)
We hear from wise teachers throughout time and from every culture that humans are meant to help one another. That giving – your time, labor, money, art, music, ideas, self – without expecting a reward or payment is a path to happiness.
We so often see the world as greedy, dishonest, selfish. Well, sometimes it is. How can we change that?
One selfless deed at a time. Paying it forward.
All kinds of organizations in every town and city need your help. So do your neighbors. And friends. And students in your school. So does your synagogue, gurdwara, mosque, church, temple, or sangat.
You can work to clean up a park or a beach, take care of animals, read to the elderly, tutor, coach, translate, do office chores, build houses with Habitat for Humanity, or do literally hundreds of other interesting projects. Volunteering helps you see a world that’s bigger than your family, friends, and school. It helps you get comfortable around people you don’t yet know at all – an important skill when you leave high school. And since some adults don’t spend any time around teens, it shows them what wonderful humans you can be!
Or you can do something totally unique. At one high school, students created artwork that they sold in order to raise money for Amnesty International. They gathered any kind of handmade creations – pottery, knitting, water/oil/charcoal artwork, quilts, jewelry, original music CDs, baked goods – and spread them around tables in the cafeteria one evening right before winter holidays, when everyone was in a spending mood. The entire community was invited to walk around and buy what they wanted, without knowing who had made what. When asked how much something cost, the answer was always, “Whatever you want to pay.” Everyone had a blast and raised money for a great cause.
But you know the best thing about that whole evening? Watching the faces of students when a complete stranger admired and bought something they’d made by hand. Talk about lit up.
Giving without expecting to get back is flat-out beautiful. It connects us to each other and makes the tough parts of life feel softer. It’s a bit of honey in our hearts, calm in our minds, and sweetness in our souls.