March seems always to bring an annual darkness, and then April teases with sunshine.  And we all--you included, I hope--find buds of enthusiasm opening and invite a season of renewed belief.
 

A FEW SPACES LEFT FOR JULY RETREAT IN UTAH HILLS.  Check it out here!  Three days with twelve women devoted to fun and enlightenment--featuring me and my irresistible daughter Emily!  Don't miss out.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO INDIA.  Last month I told the truly wonderful story of Becky Douglas and her organization http://www.risingstaroutreach.org/ doing near-unbelievable work with the leprosy affected in India, and some of her Primary children singing my song "I'll Walk With You" for government leaders on National Leprosy Day.

This is a sequel to that story, a "synchronicity," really.  For those of you who don't yet speak "synchronicity" ("meaningful coincidence") how I wish you would read my Embracing Coincidence (formerly Consider the Butterfly--a woman came by a few days ago and bought ten as she keeps giving the books as gifts).  See http://www.clpearson.com/personal_gifts.htm

The first half of this coincidence was watching with friends the very impressive DVD that Becky sent me, produced by PBS, documenting her wonderful work in India.  One section showed volunteers that come for a couple of weeks, paying their own way and doing manual labor or teaching the children from early morning until nightfall.  The family they highlighted was the Marriott family--yes the Marriott Hotel Family--adults, children, all working together in a life-changing family experience.

I was hit by a pang of envy.  How I wish I had the money to do that.  How great would it be to take my children and grandchildren to India and give them an experience of blessing the world like that!   And if I don't arrange such experiences for them, who will?   Truly I am grateful that my work has been able to support me, but I am not above occasional envy.

The second half of this synchronicity happened the following evening.  I was on the telephone with my fifteen-year old granddaughter Sarah, who lives with her Dad and her sister in the mountains near to Yosemite.  She said, "Grandma.  Remember that you told me I could bring a friend and come down and spend the weekend at your house and you'd take us to do something?"
          "Sure," I said.  "Anytime."
          "Well, I want to come next weekend and I want to bring Stephanie and we want to go into San Francisco."
          Immediately I began to calculate.  Money.  What would this adventure cost?  Teenage girls like to do fun things...and they like to go shopping...and...
          Sarah went on.  "Remember how we used to make lunches and go into San Francisco and feed the homeless?  Well, I was telling Stephanie about that and she thought it was so cool and asked if we could do it.  So, can we, Grandma?"

I was instantly catapulted into what I call my "synchronicity space," that magical place where two things collide and create a new meaning.  The night before, I had been feeling a bit powerless because I did not have the money to give my grandchildren the life-changing experience of doing service in India.  And 24 hours later my granddaughter reminds me that we don't have to go to India to do important service--we can do it right where we are, and for only the price of train tickets and some groceries.  And, perhaps most important of all, reminds me that not everything is up to me.  I have taught them--others have taught them.  I can trust.

Such a great Saturday we had!  The word had spread and four teenagers came--Sarah, Sydney, Stephanie and Nik.  Our assembly line was hilarious, creating sixty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, adding an apple, a clementine, chips and cookies.  We then put them in shopping bags in the middle of the family room, where we said a blessing on the food.  I then read to them My Homeless Man, one of the stories in Embracing Coincidence, and reminded them that Gandhi said, "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."  Then we took off for the city.

Our little brown sacks went quickly.  Down Market Street we walked.  There--a man sitting on the sidewalk.  "Would you like to have a lunch?"  There--a woman shuffling along with her shopping cart.  "Would you like to have a lunch?"  My four teenagers were showered with thank you's.  Several people called them angels.

There is angelic work to be done--in India--in San Francisco--in our own homes.  Last month I realized I should have printed the lyric to the song Becky's children sang to the leaders in India, the song I was asked to write for the Primary Children's Songbook, a song for all those whose differences sometimes cause grief: the handicapped, the leprosy affected, the less fortunate, perhaps even those who are gay.

                             I'LL WALK WITH YOU

                   If you don't walk as most people do,
                   Some people walk away from you,
                   But I won't!  I won't!

                   If you don't talk as most people do,
                   Some people talk and laugh at you,
                   But I won't!  I won't!

                    I'll walk with you, I'll talk with you,
                   That's how I'll show my love for you.

                   Jesus walked away from none,
                   He gave his love to everyone.
                   So I will!  I will!
                   Jesus blessed all he could see,
                   Then turned and said,
                   "Come follow me,"
                   And I will!  I will!

                   I'll walk with you, I'll talk with you,
                   That's how I'll show my love for you.