At least a few weeks (if not months) back, a close friend of mine handed me her copy of “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin about one man’s mission to promote peace one school at a time. The back of the book says, “Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything–even die” — Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan.

Well, I’m already more than half-way through and I’ve got to say that I’m very impressed with Greg Mortenson and the way that he has walked his talk. For some reason lately I’ve been reading books about mountain climbers or stumbling across articles about mountain climbers. Hmmm. Not sure what the God of my understanding is trying to tell me, but I do get the message of preparation, perseverance and patience. I’d pretty much decided after reading a recent report on Huffington Post about a climber who went blind after ascending to the top of KS (I think that was the climb) from his blood vessels bursting that climbing was definitely not for me—-course, there’s also my fear of heights!

But there are some heights that I have been willing to climb and hope I’ll always be willing to climb such as getting to the next level of awareness and being okay with just being. I’m at a conference this weekend with a whole bunch of people from all over the world who have been following a spiritual program to receive daily reprieve from their addiction. It feels good to know that we’re all in this together..some have been doing this longer than others but the main intent of all of us is to learn how to live in conscious contact with a power greater than ourselves.

And then I think of people like Greg Mortenson who followed his heart to do what he felt was the right thing to do (build schools for children in some of the most desolate parts of our world). I don’t know if I’d be willing to go to the lengths that Greg did to do what seemed to be his destiny or calling but I hope I’m willing to go to great lengths to help where I can and when I can.

It’s little things that can make a difference to, like just being kind to every person who crosses your path. That and making a lot more pots of tea to offer as well. I think I’m going to be drinking a lot more tea with a lot more people. How about you?