In Pursuit of Simple Happiness

by Robin Hebert

Preparing to leave on our annual mission trip, an excursion which my husband, Easton, and I lead each year to a small village in Mexico, we found ourselves running around town picking up last minute items that had been requested via email from the mission base where we were headed.  One of the articles was a car battery for a woman living in a very isolated rancho called “Kilometer 64.” A village I have visited on numerous occasions.  The battery, to be charged by a solar panel, would provide a little light at night for her family. 

Always looking for opportunities to evangelize, I explained to the clerk at Auto Zone where the battery we were purchasing was headed.  I described the desolation at the village and the fact that there was no electricity there.  I wanted her to know about the women that live there, about their extreme poverty and the hope we bring each time we visit, although I didn’t get into all of that with her.  Still she was moved.  Her quick response confirmed a mild awakening: “We got everything we need,” she quipped, “and we still ain’t happy.”  My mind flashed ahead to the look on the face that would receive the gift of light—meager energy for one solitary light bulb in a simple adobe home shared with countless others.  I knew she’d be happy. 

My sadness about the economic “unconsciousness” in my own country was softened by the thought that there was just one more person with a bit of awareness—that in our rich nation, we’ve got more than we could ever need, yet we always want more.  Her words reminded me of a statement I once heard, “We work hard to buy the things we don’t need, with the money we don’t have, to impress the people we don’t like.”  Yes, my sister, we still ain’t happy. 

Richard Rohr, OFM, opens Everything Belongs with a description of our cultural conditioning:  “We are a circumference people with little access to the center. . . . confusing edges with essence, too quickly claiming the superficial as substance.”  My personal image for this circumference conditioning is a giant hamster wheel, where in a state of frantic chasing and spinning, many of us think we’re pursuing happiness.  I witness the hamster wheel when I’m driving on a busy street and observe drivers with glazed looks on their faces, chattering mindlessly on cell phones, running red lights because they feel entitled by their busyness.  I often remind myself when I’m in that stream of rushing traffic that I—too—need to slow down and live in the present moment, the place where true happiness resides. 

Father Rohr offers a helpful insight:  “earlier peoples, who didn’t have as many escapes and means to avoid reality, had to find Essence earlier—just to survive.”  Ah, Essence, I think that’s why I travel on mission at least once a year.  Through their simplicity, my Mexican brothers and sisters point me towards Essence, which for them is faith, family, friends and food.  While I’m in Mexico, life is simple.  And integrated.  The four values by which I try to live my life—love, worship, work, and play—come together in perfect harmony.  Yes, we all work hard but we play hard.  We can’t tell the difference between worshipping and loving.  The pace of course is slower and so much more conscious, so we aren’t running like hamsters spinning mindlessly on a wheel. 

The Essence, indeed, is found not in the circumference, but in the center, where, charged by the Divine Energy Source, we  become the transmitters of infinite love and compassion.  I experienced that privilege when I presented the car battery and visited the tiny adobe home of the recipient of light, a woman named Maricella.  She is one of about a dozen women who teach me about suffering and perseverance.  They offer me the opportunity to bear their anguish with them as together we reach for the light. 

Standing in the stark barrenness of a dirt-floored kitchen illuminated now by one single light bulb I felt an indescribable happiness which envelops a soul who knows she has met another’s deep need.  The truth is:  I go to Mexico to bring their light back home—to my family, my community, even my own tired spirit that spends more time on that hamster wheel than I care to admit.  I always find that in the weeks following mission, my life is simpler.  It seems to reflect the humility, joy, and gratitude of the people to whom I have ministered.  In reality, they minister to me in ways they can never comprehend.  Their spirits make mine happy.  Simply happy. 

Mexico Mission Trip

Our fifth Mission Trip to General Cepeda, Mexico will take place February 15 to February 23 .
The cost is $525.

For further information, contact:
Robin Hebert
110 Michelle Court
Lafayette, LA  70503
Telephone: 337-981-9398
Email:  robinabear@yahoo.com

Previous Mission Trips

• South Africa 
• Ghana - Accra & Kumasi
• Mexico: General Cepeda