March is Women's History Month

Mother Teresa

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

 Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

 Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

 Life is sorrow, overcome it.

 Life is a song, sing it.

 Life is a struggle, accept it.

 Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious,

do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

--A Quote from Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was an

Albanian Catholic nun with

 Indian citizenship who founded

the Missionaries of Charity

 in Calcutta India in 1950.

 For over 45 years she

ministered to the poor, sick,

orphaned, and dying, while guiding

the Missionaries of Charity's

expansion, first throughout India

and then in other countries.

 Following her death,

 she was beatified by

 Pope John Paul II

and given the title

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

By the 1970s, she was

 internationally famed as a

humanitarian and advocate

for the poor and helpless.

 She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979

 and India's highest civilian honour,

the Bharat Ratna,in 1980

for her humanitarian work.

 Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity

continued to expand, and at the time

 of her death it was operating

 610 missions in 123 countries,

including hospices and homes for

people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy

and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's

and family counselling programs,

 orphanages, and schools.

Even though Mother Teresa was

praised for the work she accomplished

with the down trodden of this world,

she was also subjected to huge amounts of  

criticism from various groups and organizations

 that were against the focus of her work!

She was against abortion and contraception

and  she believed in the spiritual goodness

of poverty and alleged baptisms of the dying.

Many medical journals also criticised the standard

of medical care in her hospices and concerns

were raised about the opaque nature in which

donated money was spent.

Who could critize such a kind, spiritual woman, 

 who practiced the perfect example of

"unconditional Love" towards everyone she meet?

I now understand why this poem, the

 Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith 

 is on a plaque  outside of the orphanage at Calcutta...

People are often unreasonable,

illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse

 you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some

 false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,

people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,

someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,

 they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,

people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,

and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,

it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

 "The Paradoxical Commandments" by Kent Keith

****JUSTY MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS***

How many of us throw up our hands and quit

when times get too tough because we

cannot endure the harsh criticism of others? 

The hardest thing in the world,  when you are 

burdened with a heavy load, is to do GOOD anyway!!

When I am down, I am consumed with

only thoughts of myself and my suffering! 

 It has been a struggle my whole life 

NOT to let my thoughts gain complete

control over my emotions! Slowly,

 I  discovered that the more you do for others--

the more you do for yourself! 

 This past year, if it had not been

 for this blog and all of the wonderful

people who contact  me daily with so many

 kind words, I might have drown in my

own misery!  But... I knew that it would

be of no benefit no anyone if I gave

 in to that kind of thinking, so

 here I am making altered art,

 blogging, and enjoying life everyday!!!! 

Yes , I battle depression on a daily

basis but I also have a beautiful family

with four healthy children and a

 wonderful loving husband! 

Plus, a  Heavenly Father who does give

 me relief from my "dark days"!

 Hey, I'm no saint...but all I can do

 is try to give it my best!  Right?

*****************

 I am sure  that Mother Teresa could

 have let the horrible contentions of other

people get in her way of what she

strongly felt she was lead by God

 to do for others!  She could have

given in to the persecution,

depression, and  frustrations she  felt

 daily  but she didn't...she got up every

morning and left "self at the doorstep"

and extended her hands out

to anyone who was in need ! 

A letter that Mother teresa wrote

 to  Father Gerard Rogowski

I've been told that death, disease,

and poverty smells...

it isn't pleasant...

it's something we all avoid! 

 But this tiny, little  woman

went into the dirty streets of Calcutta,

 in search of death, Leprosy, Aids, T.B.,

orphans, drug addicts, and alcoholics.

Statue of Mother Teresa in her hometown of Albania

How many  streets in  other countries

did she walk through filth 

to "seek and to find" the ones

she knew that needed

her care and God's love!

  Her strength  and courage amaze ]

me, and yet,  at the same time,

make me ashamed of what little I

actually do for others. 

A Statue of Mother Teresa in Mexico

She has been quoted as saying:

"If you cannot feed a million

 people, then feed just one!"

I'm going to keep that in mind!

Memorial Plaque  to Mother Teresa

***Quotes***

Spread love everywhere you go;

first of all in your house.

Give love to your children,

to your wife or husband,

to a next door neighbor.

 Let no one ever come to you without

better and happier.

Be the living expression of God's kindness;

kindness in your face,

 kindness in your eyes,

kindness in your smile.

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun

covered with the poverty of the cross.

Today I learned a good lesson.

The poverty of the poor must be so

hard for them. While looking for a home

I walked and walked till my arms

and legs ached. I thought how much they

 must ache in body and soul,

looking for a home, food and health.

I was to leave the convent and help

the poor while living among them.

It was an order. To fail would have been

to break the faith.

Kind words are short and easy to speak,

but their echoes are truly endless.

 

We can do no great things;

only small things with great love.

We need to find God,

and he cannot be found in

noise and restlessness.

 God is the friend of silence.

See how nature -

trees, flowers, grass -

grows in silence;

see the stars,

the moon and the sun,

how they move in silence…

We need silence to be

 able to touch souls.

We, the unwilling,

led by the unknowing,

are doing the impossible

for the ungrateful.

We have done so much,

for so long,

with so little,

we are now qualified

to do anything

with nothing.

***Credit***

11 free images courtesy of

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/CategoryMother_Teresa