The Goddess Speaks Brandi-Ann Tanaka

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Orphans give the gift of insight

MY MOM likes to remind me of my spoiled ways as a child when I would say, "Is that all?" after opening all of my Christmas presents. As ashamed as I was to hear this story over and over, I never really understood how fortunate I was to be able to utter those words until this year.

Christmas for me used to be all about the towering boxes of brightly wrapped gifts and my requests for a little sister or brother -- and then later a dog -- to play with.

Christmas mornings gave me my first lessons in disappointment, as there were never enough gifts -- though there were many -- and there never was a new baby or puppy under the tree. Christmas turned into another opportunity, another holiday of high expectation and inevitable disappointment.

THIS YEAR, Christmas changed dramatically for me. All of a sudden, I felt as though the curtain of denial had been rudely drawn open to reveal a world of great need -- a need far greater than my desire for a sister and a puppy. How could there be so much lacking in the world when there are people with so much?

Before this year I understood this on a logical level. I knew, for example, that I had to eat my greens because there were some people somewhere starving, who would love to have the food that I was so willing to waste.

But I never really understood the magnitude of the world's hunger. Hunger not only for food, but for other basic needs such as love, shelter and simple acknowledgment of their pain.

A few weeks ago, a friend told me about an organization helping orphans in the Ukraine and showed me a video of people suffering in Africa.

I was overwhelmed.

I could not believe that I have lived my entire life without the awareness that there were greater, real problems outside of my own and that there were ways I could help. Or maybe I did realize it but was too much inside of myself to reach out.

EITHER WAY, this holiday season touched me and gave me a great gift, one that I think would not make my mother ashamed. It has taught me the value of extending myself to the world and to be grateful for the overabundance I often take for granted.

So many people struggle daily with fates more difficult than I could ever imagine. They have given me the gift of knowledge that life itself is greater than the presents I'd ask to find placed under the Christmas tree.

This year, I asked Santa for the heart, knowledge and strength that keeps them surviving every day.

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