Linda Schaefer's journeys with Mother Teresa

This is how I began my talk for Hospice of Tift in Georgia:

How do we discover compassion? Go provides many tools and circumstances, some of which we are prepared to confront, while others land at our doorstep with a bang. When a spouse, child, friend, mother, father or other relative is diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of cancer, how does one respond to this hard and cruel circumstance? Do we shake our fist at God? Do we take it out on our children or loved ones? Do we fight the big fight and take a position on some surreal battleground, grab the biggest sword we can find, stride our dragon and fly into the face of this huge ugly threat, swearing and cursing, damning the beast of cancer to hell?

So which position do we take? Are we going into battle, or do we choose to surrender to a circumstance that we ultimately have little control over, particularly over the outcome?

(email for rest of speech: please view www.motherteresaofcalcutta.com