The Los Angeles Center is located in a
semi-desert area near Riverside, California surrounded by rough, mountainous
terrain sparsely dotted with plants that compete for a few inches of
rainfall each winter. The local residents often seem as rough-hewn as
the landscape they inhabit, and over the past few years, the homeless
population in the area has increased. So this year, L. A. initiates
aimed their Thanksgiving project at improving the lives of the very
poorest of the poor in surrounding communities.
To
this end, we purchased sweatshirts, socks, knit caps, underwear and
tote bags as gifts. Our first night was spent driving up and down
the streets, restaurant parking lots, dollar stores and parks of a
local community, looking for areas where the homeless lived. Luckily,
we found two parks that provided shelter for several destitute people,
most of whom were sociable and happy to gather their friends together
to receive their gifts.
Our
second stop was a larger town about twenty minutes from the Center,
where close to sixty homeless residents had taken over an entire park.
As soon as we arrived and set up our free items on a park bench, most
of the homeless quickly gathered in an orderly line to accept their
gifts. In the group were two young mothers, each holding a scantily
clad baby wearing only thin cotton pajamas in the cold winter night.
Although we had not bought any baby clothes, we made due with what
we had. After quickly cleaning the babies with baby wipes, the mothers
dressed them in the oversized sweatshirts, socks, and knit caps that
we provided. Upon leaving, we thought, "At least these babes
will be clean and toasty warm as they spend the night in the park's
shelter."
The
following afternoon, we made our third and final trip, which brought
us to a Salvation Army Shelter, open nightly during the winter months
for male residents. The facility was impeccably clean and well-run.
We set up our clothing on the lawn close to where the men lined up
to enter the building, and in two hours had given away all of the
clothing. Meanwhile, each man was "introduced" to the real
giver of these gifts -- the Supreme Master Ching Hai -- through the
sample booklets that we included with the items
Master
teaches us that some of the poor are high-level Saints, born into
material existence in order to nurture our compassion. She also informs
us that it is we who benefit most when giving to the less fortunate,
as Los Angeles Center initiates learned this Thanksgiving!
