When a tragedy strikes – in the world or in our lives – it can leave us feeling helpless. But the one thing we can always control is how we respond. This is the story of Nitin Madhav and his inspiring response to a tragedy that occurred in his life.
Nitin is the officer-in-charge for Cambodia at the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Nitin has responded to crises all over the world and speaks an astounding ten languages.
Nitin was working for a medical NGO in Rwanda in the late 1990s when he and his co-workers were taken hostage by a group of armed insurgents. In my interview, Nitin tells his story, how he recovered, and why he decided to return to Afghanistan just a few years later and with a prosthetic leg. Click the video below to watch.
Buddha teaches that “to be human is to suffer.” What that means is we know tragedies and hard times will be a part of life. But our power lies in how we manage them. Nitin was shot and lost a leg in Rwanda, but that didn’t deter him from following his dream of helping people in Afghanistan. In his words, “a [tragic event] is only life changing if you make it be that.”
Post a comment: How have you grown from a difficult experience? What was your biggest lesson?
Your challenge: Consider a difficult period in your life. List the ways you grew as a person or how people came together to help you. Can you feel some gratitude for that difficult experience for making you a stronger person today?
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Remember, it’s the little changes we make in our daily life that brings greater peace to the whole.
