The Joy of Peeling Potatoes

While I was peeling potatoes this morning with other volunteers and with Yiruma’s “River Flows in You” playing in the background, I felt a sense of calmness. I was suddenly in a meditative state without me noticing when it exactly happened. I was quite content with what I was doing. I realised how such a simple act — peeling potatoes — could be so full of love.

I was doing something quite ‘simple’ or ‘relatively simple’ compared to what social workers or development practitioners would have been doing. Someone else from another part of the world might be saving lives as a paramedic or refugee support worker or military personnel. Another could be building homes for people who had been displaced by disasters. Yet another important person might be leading others to enact policies that would improve health care for millions of people.

And there I was — peeling potatoes that would be used to cook meals for people who had nothing to eat tonight.

When we compare our efforts with other people’s efforts, ours may look ‘small’ and ‘simple.’ During such time, it is good to remind ourselves with what Saint Therese of Lisieux had said,

To which, her best friend Mother Teresa of Calcutta centuries later would echo,

As I was peeling potatoes, a surge of great love came from within my heart. Suddenly, there was so much love in peeling those potatoes.

Thousands of years ago, Mama Mary would have been doing the same thing for Jesus — peeling potatoes for his meals and cooking for Jesus. What profound joy it was to peel those potatoes!

How overwhelmingly humbling that when I try to give back and serve the Lord, I am the one who receives more in the end. Today, I woke up to volunteer three hours of my time to help feed the hungry, but after those three hours, I was the one who felt so Loved by the Lord. I felt blessed to have been given the joy and the chance to peel those potatoes for Jesus.

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