Making Waves!

Friday, 29 February 2008 | posted by Rhadeena
Guildford 2008

It's been over a month since all of us got back to our respective countries from Guilford and to anyone reading this blog who wasn't present it was ‘a once in a lifetime' experience. Most importantly it started a lot of us thinking and probing as to what we can do to bring about change and how we can do it.

As most of you know my activism involves working with street and slum children just outside the commercial capital of Colombo. Two weeks ago the organization I work with had a new addition to their ‘home' where they house and educate underprivileged children. This new addition was a laughing, energetic little girl of four who could be compared to lightening...‘now you see her, now you don't'. However on closer inspection you could see the countless wounds that covered her legs. She and her mother had traveled a long distance to reach Colombo and not being able to afford shoes, she had come barefoot. From her prancing around and constant smile you can never tell if she is in any real pain or not.

Two more of these kids are part of the Sunday School class I teach. While the other children come with their parents, these two walk in together and give me momentary panic every time as they have such mischievous looks on their faces that I have no idea what mayhem they have planned for me that week! While adding new meaning to the phrase ‘hard to handle', to anyone observing you could never say they came from a less than normal background. They may start off shaky but they adapt quickly and fit right in.

Getting back to the point...what inspires me most in the work that I do are these children, who refuse to be cowed by their situations or circumstances. I hope that now you can understand at least a bit of what I mean. Anyone who read Gillion's blog entry on Tuesday will know that the ‘Guilford 60' has made plans concerning the future and what we hope to achieve. The reality is that it's not as easy as it sounds.

Before I left for Guilford, I felt that a lot of my aspirations were out of my reach, but I came back realizing that Edison had the right idea when he said "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work".

Today I was driving by the coast with my dad after school and I noticed that there was not a wave on the surface of the water. It looked like a lake that stretched on for miles into the horizon. As I watched, a single wave formed rippling along the water and in that instant you could see the colours of the sea as God meant it to be seen.

So if you ever feel like there is nothing you can do or you don't know how to achieve your goals, start by making a single wave. Until you start tossing out ideas and going beyond the ordinary you may never unearth the ‘hidden colours' inside you. There's a lot in each of us that we ourselves haven't discovered yet. Unlock your potential and you'll find it was fully worth the effort.

All my love and prayers from the humid temperatures of Sri Lanka,

Rhadeena