a United WORLD

Since coming here I've been able to learn and experience so many different cultures, people, languages-from Brasil to Bosnia, from Korea to Ecuador, from Argentina to US, from Australia to Vietnam, from Burundi to Egypt. It's amazing how each culture is so unique, but living here makes me realize when we focus on similarities and unite differences, we can live a "united world." Sounds like an utopia, but that is the experience I live here with girls from 23 different countries.

But really you would ask: how can we have a united world when there's wars, natural disasters, murders?,...if only we could all treat others as we want to be treated; the golden rule in every religion. If we focus on our similarities instead of differences because in every human being there's a similar desire: to love and to be loved. The greatest suffering in the world are not people who are starving from malnutrition, or diagnosed with an incurable disease, but it's people that are not "loved." People that are abandoned, alone, and uncared for.

Just think about that for one moment if there's someone in your life that isn't loved...just maybe you can be that person to bring the love.

To bring the love in each and every "present moment" to the person that is beside you....which leads me to my next experience. Yesterday I was peacefully in my room because I had just finished writing my life story which we all had to do, and I was busy doing something else. Then one of the girls who arrived not to long ago came into my room and sat beside me. When a new person arrives many times it's hard to adjust to our busy schedule, and to enter into the whole scheme of things. I knew that she hasn't gotten to know many people, and many times she told me she felt lost and alone. She came to just sit beside me to write her life story. When I started to talk to her I realized she was stuck and lost in how to write her life story, in my heart I was kinda focused on doing something else. But in that present moment, I stopped what I was doing, put my pen down, and started to talk to her. I tried to ask her basic questions and asked her to tell me experiences that has helped her grow and make her the person she is today. Slowly, she started to tell experiences about her family, school, and friends, and God. It was beautiful to get to know her a little more because a person's life story defines the reasons why a person does or acts in a certain way. In each moment I let go of everything in my mind what I was thinking of and only focused on what she was telling me. Because many times, we are not physically doing something, but our mind is lost in our thoughts. Stopped everything in my mind of my own thoughts or desires to be fully "present" for her, to listen and to love her as she would want to be loved. Even though initially I would have wanted to just continue doing my thing and help her at the same time, I needed to love the person who is presented to me in the present moment. While I was helping her with her story, she thanked me and said "you're like my guardian angel." We can really only live life moment by moment because in reality the future has yet to come, and the past is in the "past."

So bring the love to whoever is presented to you in each moment!