To Heal The World

Early Saturday morning I leave, again, for another trip to Nicaragua.
I will travel with a group of 60 high school students and adults most of whom are from our congregation and a nearby Jewish congregation with some community members joining in. We will live in three separate communities working with families, community members and a team of masons to build homes with and for six families. As I have gotten ready for our trip this year I have been thinking about the Jewish understanding of tikkun olam. To heal the world. Most will see or think that the the work we will be doing and the homes that will be built are in some small way healing the world and maybe that is true.  But today I find myself thinking about tikkun olam from my side of the divide. As I gather supplies and pack my bag, I wonder what in me needs to be healed if the world in which we live is going to be more whole and more holy for all of the children of earth?”