To My Neighbor
StoryIllustration★★★★One night a man came to our house and told me, “There is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days.” I took some food with me and went. When I finally came to that family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger.
I gave the rice to the mother. She divided the rice in two, and went out, carrying half the rice. When she came back, I asked her, “Where did you go?” She gave me this simple answer, “To my neighbors—they are hungry also!”
.…I was not surprised that she gave, because poor people are really very generous. But I was surprised that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on ourselves we have no time for others. – Teresa of Calcutta, “To My Neighbor,” No Greater Love (New World Library, Ignacio, CA, 1997). Quoted in Alice Gray, More Stories for the Heart (Multnomah Publishers, Inc., Sisters, OR, 1997), 29.
Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love.
The point
A poor woman who receives food shares half with her hungry neighbors, illustrating the generosity of those with little and the tendency of suffering people to focus only on themselves.