“If you want to bring happiness to the whole world, go home and love your family.”           Mother Theresa  

• Yes, my time living among the Basotho has ended.
• No, I’m not going back just yet (but hopefully in the future).
• Absolutely, it was hard to leave my new home and family.
• You bet, there has been some reverse culture shock since returning (much of which I am still processing and hope to share with you in the near future.)
• “What’s next?” you may be wondering and many have asked.

What’s next is family… lots and lots of family.

Serving in Lesotho, living with the Basotho, was a step, an attempt, to work towards peace, to become a global citizen and a neighbor, to love and know different tribes and nations, and in the words of Mother Theresa to “bring happiness to the world.”  In some respects it seems like a grand gesture, like a huge task to work towards the happiness of the world…. and sure moving 8000 miles might be classified as grand.  However, it feels like this: this loving on my family, this welcoming of babies into the world, witnessing of milestones, holding of sick children, sharing of meals with parents, this might be grand as well.

We aren’t all going to travel 8000 miles, we won’t all get the chance to immerse ourselves in a completely foreign culture, and even for those of us who do it comes to an end.  However, we all can love our families.  We all can show compassion to those we were given, or those we have chosen, to live life with, to break bread with.  We all have the capacity to do something grand, to work towards the happiness of the world, because we all can love our families, and love them well.

In Lesotho I didn’t solve any of the Basotho’s problems, I didn’t make any huge changes, or save anyone, what I did was love.  I loved the family I was given and the family I found in my village and community.  I went 8000 miles and now I just need to reach across the sofa but the work is essentially the same, to love.  Be present to one another, witness and walk through life together.  The world could use some peace, some hope and a perhaps a little more happiness, and it might all start in our homes, with our families.

Don’t wait to move across the globe just love. Love your family. Bring happiness to the world.

Blessings as you love,

Bren