Reflection on the recycling activitiy

On last Sunday, I found myself working together with many people in Thomson to collect newspapers for recycling. Most of them are in their 50s or even older. How can it be fun at all? Upon my arrival at that area, I said to myself “Gosh, what on earth am I doing in the midst of them.”

Nonetheless, I tried to do what I am supposed to do. We were separated into groups to collect old newspapers, clothes and other electronics devices as we moved from blocks to blocks of HDB flats. It was not an easy task because there were so many newspapers to be moved from the residents’ doorstep to the void deck and later on, to the van.

After the activity was over and a truckload of newspaper was collected, we went for lunch. The lunch was cooked by some of the Tzu Chi members to be shared by all. It was a time for all of us to interact and knows more of each others more. We talked about how we felt, our tiredness to move the newspapers and most of all, the joy of being able to complete the activity successfully.

Only then I started to reflect about the whole thing. I realized that I was working with a group of old but young at heart people. They were older but more enthusiastic than me. And the fact that they were willing to sacrifice their Sunday morning for charity activity showed that their altruistic attitude to help the unfortunate people around them. They were happy, cheerful and energetic despite their age.

I think that unlike other organizations, Tzu Chi is helping people regardless of their race, religion and others. Neither does it require the participants nor the recipient of the fund raised to accept certain religion. During the entire activity, the theme of religion played a backseat. What all of us have in mind is just to help the less fortunate ones and to ease their burden.

Like the John Lennon’s song Imagine, I do hope that someday you will join us.