Repairing our World..

Rhonda and her Tikkun Olam Award

Over the weekend, I was a recipient of the Jane B. Mendel Tikkun Olam Award from the Jewish Federation of Arkansas. The Tikkun Olam Award recognized my volunteer work with Ati’Day Yisroel Early Childhood Center. A popular question among friends has been – how did you get involved? Moreover, you can be awarded and not be Jewish? And what does Tikkun Olam mean?

I moved to Little Rock 6 years ago this week to begin my work with Vic, Betsy  and the boys. Sometime later that year I met Julie and Phil Elson right after they had their first child (you know Phil because he is the play by play voice for Razorback Baseball). Julie and I quickly became friends. A few years later, Julie introduced me to Ati’Day Yisroel Early Childhood Center.   Ati’ Day Yisroel Early Childhood Center was more of a

Rhonda and Julie

preschool than a childhood center. since I join the board we now accept infants. Somehow, I ended up joining the board in 2012 as someone who could bring “expertise” from working in the industry at AfterCare Express at Lakewood UMC.  It was a good fit- I had experience working in nonprofit religious childcare programming. In 2014, I was asked to take on the role as Director of Education. I feel that I can offer some solid advice to the board and assist the director as needed(Amy). People assume daycares are moneymakers and simple to manage. Friends and readers of this blog, daycares (especially infant – preschool settings) are a lot of work and I respect anyone who is directing or working in childcare. It's work! I have the privilege to work in a setting that is afterschool programming and it’s the perfect fit for me.  Since the Arkansas Jewish community is small in numbers the daycare and the board they allow us Gentiles (non Jew) to attend the daycare and serve on the board.  

I am so thankful that my parents instilled in me the importance of respecting diversity and culture. According to my research there are about 1700 Jewish people living in Arkansas. I think about 300 were in attendance on Saturday night at the Feasting and Festivities event at the Arkansas Arts Center.  You might remember Bill Clinton  was honored in 2012.

Board President and I
Red Heads Rock!

This year they honored Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck. Justice Tuck (She served on the Arkansas Supreme Court) is also an active community advocate and I find it a real honor to be awarded alongside with her.

Tikkun Olam- Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world" (or "healing the world") which suggests humanity's shared responsibility to heal, repair and transform the world.

I am very thankful for the talents and gifts that God gave me. I believe that when you are working within your talents and gifts then you have the ability to be performing at your best. I am also thankful my husband allows to to be involved in charity work and he is willing to pick the slack at home!  I know there are lots of

John and Rhonda before the event

people I am surrounded by each day who are making a difference in the world without receiving credit. People assume you have to travel the world to help others when in fact there is ways to volunteer right around you. I am very grateful and humbled that the Ati` Day Board nominated me for this honor and I am proud to be a honorary jew. 

I also thought this was thought provoking:

In The Essence of the Heart Sutra, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote,

“Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is lovingkindness).

In other words, when we truly see our own suffering, we can see the suffering of others more clearly, and that leads us to be compassionate.  When we reach out to others, we often alleviate our own suffering when we create a deep empathic bond.

This doesn’t always happen when we think we’re being compassionate.  Sometimes, we’re just going through the motions, we’re doing our best with at a job that involves helping others, but we may be stressed-out or overwhelmed.  When that happens, we don’t have the wisdom to see our own suffering, let alone someone else’s.  That may be a time when we need to look at ourselves and our own spiritual practice to see what is supporting us.  What is nurturing us? We need to have empathy for ourselves when we are burned out.  How can we repair the world if we ourselves are broken?

Tikkun Olam- repairing the world, starts with healing ourselves. And sometimes healing ourselves starts with reaching out to someone else.