Forever Lessons

One of the most fulfilling and self revealing experiences of my life has been being a member of a local, inter-religious youth group called The SSU (Searching & Service in Unity). It’s just a portion of my life that I can honestly say I never get tired of sharing, and most certainly can’t imagine doing without. It is essentially a part of the person I am today, in more ways than there are words in any language!

I could make a never ending list of the things I’ve learned from being part of such a group but I’ll restrain myself to mentioning only a few. The things, I think, are more relevant to our place and times.

Being inter-religious, one of the greatest lessons I’ve learnt is that we’re all basically the same. We may call our God by different names; we may not call on him at all, speak different languages, celebrate different festivals and study different subjects. But we laugh at the same jokes, find joy in the smallest, most insignificant things, hurt at insensitivity and cry at irreplaceable loss. We’re human. We’re the same.

It wouldn’t take a genius to know that if you really wanted to achieve something, you’d better work to deserve it. This just brings to the fore another one of those ‘lessons for a lifetime’ that I’m in the process of learning – “If you want to, you can”.

Two of our annual events in the group are The Play, which is staged for a charitable cause and The Camp, which is centered, mainly, on youth training and character development. Both of these take place only after some meticulous planning and execution by production teams or planning committees. They’re both events that have proven highly successful in administering the lesson of commitment and responsibility.

Don’t get the wrong impression though; we’re not a bunch of martyrs sacrificing all our free time trying to do noble deeds for the rest of mankind, (though I definitely think we do the little we can) in fact I think we wouldn’t be able to function straight if we didn’t make sure we had our fun alongside. Another lesson that has made its way to being a golden rule – there’s no joy in work without fun and there’s no joy in fun without work!

It’s that crucial balance between the two which once struck ensures you just can’t go wrong. Everything falls in place and, voila! You’re a happy soul through it all!

So, those are some of the things I’ve picked up along the way on my path of self discovery and still sometimes I forget how they work and lose my footing, but I know for sure I’ll manage to find my way back with a little help from the family, some good friends, a little faith in self and life goes on! Happily. Purposefully.

What more is there to want? So much! But it’s a good start.

Larika

February 2009

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camps

plays

outreaches

games

parties!