By Brenda Nesbitt

The teenager’s long clean hair is gathered into a ponytail that measures a foot long.  With one firm slice of the scissor, a hairdresser cuts it off just above the hair band that holds it tight and drops it into an envelope addressed to Locks of Love. This non-profit organization provides quality hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 who suffer from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

Meanwhile, in our community, George and Alison have in the past shaved their heads clean as a whistle in support of St. Baldrick’s Foundation, while Alison is now growing out her hair to give to Locks of Love.  And the teenager in the video on the Locks of Love website smiles as the hairdresser puts the finishing touches on her short crop.  Out with the old, in with the new; always we begin again.

In 1993, stumbling down the rocky flanks of K2, Greg Mortensen lost his way, and found his future. Having failed in his attempt to summit the second highest mountain in the world, he drifted, exhausted and disoriented, into a remote village in northern Pakistan. Moved by the villagers’ unstinting hospitality, he promised to build them a school. Over the next decade Mortensen built not one, but fifty-five schools – especially for girls – in a forsaken region that gave birth to the Taliban.

And yet Mortensen’s mission was born out of failure. In the beautifully written memoir that tells his story, Three Cups of Tea, a Persian proverb says it all: “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” Mind you, Greg Mortensen was not, and is not, a rich man. In order to raise money to build this first school, he sold everything he owned and lived in his car for a year. The first donations for his project came as $623 in pennies collected from schoolchildren in Wisconsin.

Here at Christ’s Church, surely we are also blessed to be a blessing, offering our gifts of time, talent and treasure that build a community everyday. We fold bulletins, we bake altar bread, we teach children, we sing, we make sure the lights are working and the ceiling doesn’t leak. We serve coffee, we answer the phones. We make a pledge; we put what we can in the plate. We serve at St. Clare’s table, we go to the jail: we play that Steinway to a fare-thee-well. Each in our own way according to the desires of our hearts.  Some of us know exactly what we want to do with our blessings. Others might have to stumble down from K2.

“There is a candle in your heart in your heart, waiting to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul, waiting to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?”
- Rumi

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If you’d like to know more about the activities mentioned above, check out these websites: www.locksoflove.org, www.threecupsoftea.com, www.stbaldricks.org, www.ChristsEpiscopalChurch.org

The opinions expressed in the Music, Art and Words section of the Christ’s Episcopal Church website at http://www.christsepiscopalchurch.org are those of the authors, not Christ’s Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, or The Episcopal Church. Additionally, the authors, artists and musicians who contributed to the contents of this portion of the website own the exclusive proprietary right to their work. Reproduction of their work, in whole or in part, is expressly forbidden without their permission. Please contact Arlene Armata at 303.688.5185 for clarification or to request contact with the authors, artists or musicians.