It is late at night. The television is on. It is one of those nights you have decided to relax. You have your favorite show on, oh it is so good...next to appear is an infomercial, or shall I say, a plea. You know, those with a soft-spoken gentleman asking for a monthly donation for a poor child in a Latin American Country. The visions of the conditions of squalor appear endless. Somehow, those visions, the advertisement itself can make one uncomfortable...One of the most significant and memorable experiences of my life was one that happened many years past, but it is an experience that I will never forget. It is one, which remains so vivid...so powerful today, just as it did forty years ago now. Forty years seems as if an eternity has passed, yet I recall every detail inside of my being. I had the opportunity to view first hand the conditions of poor children in a Latin American Country before there were ever infomercials of that I just described. I had been forever changed by just one day on a journey to Peru. I also made a personal promise.
Peru, the name of this South American country alone, evokes a sensation of mystery and magic. Actually, given the gift of stepping on the soil of this enigmatic, colorful land, one soon discovers wonders beyond conception.
I was in the sixth grade when my grandparents asked me if I would like to go and visit my uncle, a Catholic Priest, who was living in Lima, Peru. I most excitedly, yet graciously answered with an emphatic and astounded, "YES", please...:) My class had actually been studying the land of Peru as well as the ancient Incas. Since I have always had a great love for history and adventure, to have the glorious privilege of being asked if I wanted to go to this country, was literally, a dream come true. (At the end of this story, I will share a bit of why my grandparents asked me out of many, many grandchildren)
I remember disembarking from the plane. I was entering a new, foreign land; what exhilaration I contained in each breathe. What amazement within my eyes. We landed in the capital, Lima, a city gigantic beyond any place I had ever been previously. There were massive amounts of people of many beautiful colors and many backgrounds. The smells in the air were so amazingly unusual, so delightful. The Colonial Spanish Architecture appeared to me as intricate, yet grand, beautiful, and so stunningly detailed. I WAS IN COMPLETE AWE! My senses had never feasted upon such delights.
As we came upon the edge of the city, I also, for the first time, witnessed desperate poverty. The type of poverty I had read about, the type of poverty I would hear about in church, and the type my parents would talk about, but I could simply not imagine or fathom. I viewed face up, the true conditions of "third-world" poverty before the term came into mainstream fruition. I walked through hundreds of shanty cardboard, tin makeshift living quarters, traipsed in the mud of the walkways. I watched the faces of shining, innocent children playing with beaming, yet solemn smiles, in piles of garbage in piles of refuse.
A person can wonder if a child actually does live in such bleak and impoverished conditions. At the age of eleven, I had the striking truth delivered straight to the threshold of my consciousness. It was from this turning point on that forever changed my view of life, my view of the world in which I lived. I realized that I could never take anything for granted again. I felt within my entire heart, within my complete soul that I had much to be grateful for. I decided on that one day, that I would do all that I could to combat poverty, injustice, and inequality in all of its forms, in all of its manifestations.
It is late at night. I am watching television. A gentleman appears making a plea asking for help for Latin American children living in squalor conditions. I can no longer afford to be uncomfortable. That one day, forty years ago, transformed my life;; it is now my time to deepen the change for the lives of others.
Thank you.
This is actually a speech I wrote several years back when I was working on my AA Degree. I wanted to share, especially with my Facebook Family, since I have been posting much regarding the state of our world. Many who have known me for a very long time, know that I have been a champion for justice for a very long time. I just thought before I get really into my series of peoples and groups around the world that are oppressed and are in of great need, that I would share a bit of background about my early self so that you can have a deeper understanding of who I am. The "Activist," Maria...:)
I can actually say that before I went to Peru, I had this strange little girl heart that somehow knew that there were many people in need. I used to send fifty-cent pieces to my uncle starting when I was about four or five (trust me back then a fifty-cent piece went a long way even here...can you imagine in Peru?) This is the reason my grandparents asked me to go with them. They were quite proud of their granddaughter and it was actually my grandparents who taught me so much about giving. Also, so many people were asking my uncle who is this little girl from the United States who cares so much about us...he would tell them about me in his sermons. I was treated with such love and kindness...
I share this not, to "toot my own horn," I only share so that all of you here at BEAMTHELIGHTBETHECHANGE just have an idea of how long I have been a champion for those in need. I may not have all of the answers to solve all the problems, but I do know my heart and my heart serves me well...
"BE A BEAMING RAY OF GOLDEN LIGHT THAT TOUCHES ALL WHOM YOU MEET"
Maria Juarez Beam
Musical Selection: Mana: Justicia, Tierra, y Liberdad from their album "Revolucion de Amor"
Justice, Land, and Freedom from their album Revolution of Love...
LET LOVE RAIN...REIGN...AND TRANSFORM...PAZ Y AMOR!
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