During most Saturday programs at M. A. Center, I sit in the back of the hall cutting out old photos of Amma from cassette covers, calendars, and various outdated printed material to recycle or frame. Inevitably, a few children – maybe 4 or 5, sometimes more – will stop by to help along with a parent. They sit for a some time, and some stay, while some eventually get distracted and bounce away like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. Some come back, only to bounce away again…<\/p>\n
Tonight, I was looking forward to returning to my usual spot after having been in India for a month. I brought a few boxes of old calendars up to the hall with the hopes that a few Balakendra kids would help once they came to the hall after their own program had finished.<\/p>\n
No sooner had I opened the first box, when a young boy and girl both about 6 years old, came over and offered to help. They sat down and I assigned them jobs of unwrapping the plastic, taking out the cardboard insert, and removing the back cover which will be later cut into smaller photos.<\/p>\n
It must have looked like fun to the others, because within minutes, there were maybe 12-15 kids asking to pitch in. It was one of the largest groups of kids – and not a parent in sight. The young boy and girl assumed command – assigning jobs, measuring the speed, giving praise, and organizing the flow. Soon, they were all working in unison in this cacophony of a ‘dis-assembly’ line.<\/p>\n
One boy was overjoyed whenever I passed him a fresh calendar to work on. To him, getting one right out of the box was like winning the lottery.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all this chaos, the young girl turned to the boy and exclaimed with a huge expression of immense glee, and a measure of matter-of-factly-speaking – ”This is Service, I like Service!” To which the boy replied, ‘I LOVE doing service,’ followed by the girl’s response, ‘Amma says Service is GOOD!’<\/p>\n
And indeed it is.<\/p>\n
Sri Pati – USA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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