Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending United Way of Orange County’s Women’s Philanthropy Fund Breakfast to honor a host of influential women philanthropists, business leaders and community volunteers.
The event raised more than $280,000, and it also raised a few spirits, leaving those of us in attendance inspired by its organizers and special keynote speaker.
The theme of the event was “You Give. You Get. You Give.” A nod to the fact that by giving of our time, talent and/or money, we receive much in return in the form of leaving the world a better place, and in doing so are able to carry on to give back again, and again.
The keynote speaker for the event was Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and her message was one that resonated throughout the ballroom packed with nearly 650 attendees.
As a teenager, my parents took me to hear Archbishop Tutu speak about apartheid. So it was a special treat for me, 30 years later, to listen to his daughter share her inspiration and insights.
And as oft happens, just when we need it, we get a message through someone else that helps us to view the world with new perspective and meet it with a different attitude.
Tutu’s keynote speech was entitled, “What Gift Do You Bring?” and she started her presentation reciting a poem by Gregory Norbet that she told us made an impact on her along her own path to discovering and embracing her gifts and talent.
In an elegant voice, and slow, steady cadence to emphasize the words, she read:
There is a pearl of great price within you,
it is your hidden self where God abides,
the seed of all goodness and love,
the power of all that is wholesome and life-giving.
It is your faith, your inner child of wonder and delight,
of guilelessness and enthusiasm.
It is your wellspring of hospitality where you are
host and hostess for a banquet of simple sharing
and profound transformation.
May you always honor the greatness of your soul
and nurture that place of being from which others drink deeply.
You could have heard a pin drop in that giant ballroom filled to the brim. It was a powerful moment that captured each of us in our own personal way.
Tutu asked us to rethink what we each consider to be our gifts, to embrace and nurture our gifts, and not let them be determined by others. By embracing our true gifts, we are able to do things from a place of joy. In turn, she said, when we do things with a sense of joy we are better able to ask ourselves “where does great joy meet the world’s great needs?”
She also pointed out, that in many cultures, women are not raised to see their gifts, and therefore do not derive the joy inherent in the giving of them. She asked us not to prejudge from what banquet others may be enjoying our gifts, and not to underestimate other people’s experiences that we might take for granted. She reminded the audience that we all can use our gifts to transform the world.
For me, I sometimes take for granted my ability to write. Not that I’m going to win a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, but it is something from which I derive a great deal of joy. And as Tutu noted, it is a gift I sometimes take for granted.
Yet often, and usually when “writer’s block” is in full tilt, I’ll receive an email from a reader who reaches out to tell me what something I wrote meant to them, or an organization sends me a note of thanks for bringing their story to light, and I am given back a true sense of satisfaction.
When that happens, I get the chance to stop and consider what my “pearl of great price” truly is, and that’s the greatest gift of all.
Lynn Selich resides in Newport Beach. Email your comments and story suggestions to her at [email protected].
