Satisfied

Not too many years ago I accepted an invitation from Bombay colleagues to attend the public portion of a weekend event featuring a Swami. While much of that weekend is now faded and packed safely away in one of my memory suitcases, I can't forget one phrase that the Swami said: "What we want is changing. That we want is changeless."

Perhaps I haven't forgotten that message because it's so relevant and applicable. Yes, it applied to the lecture years ago, but yes, it still applies to today as well. One window-shopping trip to the mall can conjure up a plethora of items that I could use.

"I have one of those, but it's not the latest with the most up-to-date features" I tell myself.

The Swami's words immediately echoed in my head when a university colleague, a Hindu, sitting next to me on a panel about Jesuit Identity, said, "This is where I am today: I have all that I need and I don't need all that I have."

How powerful is that? I look around my world, my office, my residence, my car, my neighborhood, etc. and ask myself, "What else could I possibly need? What else could I possibly want? Look at all of this around me — what am I not using or don't need? And I took the vow of poverty as a religious sister to boot.

[Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati Ohio.]