Raising the Joy Factor, One Call at a Time

It’s not about how much you do but how much love you put into what you do that counts. – Mother Teresa 

One sunny Spring morning a few weeks ago, self-isolating in her house near the beach on the East Coast of the U.S. because of COVID-19, my aunt began to make random phone calls to total strangers. They’d answer the phone and she’d greet them with, “Hello, I’m a minister, and I was wondering if you’d like to pray together?” 

Out of the first fifty calls only one person declined, and he was busy flipping burgers at work. 

Her intention was simple: to uplift the field of Love in a trying time for our global family. 

She called the switchboard of her local hospital and prayed with the operator, a young woman who was sobbing by the end of the call and told her, “Your words make coming to work meaningful for me now. I really needed that—thank you so much. ” 

Then she went on to call patients, just changing the number by one digit at the end for each new call. 

Then she went on to call everyone. And anyone. New parents. Elderly people with no family nearby. A bus driver. A handyman afraid of losing his business. An inner-city teacher. Several people who were isolated and shut-in. Old friends. Family. Neighbors. 

Together they prayed for joy, for peace, for getting in touch with their innate wellbeing and for the knowing that, This too shall pass. She listened to their fears, doubts, and worries with patience, transmuting them with gentle reassurance. 

She told me that so many of the people she called were crying happy tears by the time they hung up. 

Together they prayed for joy and for peace. Image: Tim Mossholder

She called people in the United States. She called people in Germany, France, Switzerland, Mexico, and Australia: the list goes on. 

No one asked her what kind of a minister she was or what church she was from. No one cared how old she was, or who she voted for, or if she had a college degree, or how much money she made, or what color her skin was. No one asked if she’d received a Nobel Peace Prize, or had a book on Oprah. “People just want to connect and be heard, and to have someone touch their heart with Love—the universal language that everyone knows,” she said.  

I’d bet that none of them even knew by the end of the conversation that my Aunt Claire is in her late 60’s, travels around the world on a shoestring budget uplifting small spiritual communities, and is blessed with the gift of prophecy. And although she speaks six languages and has piercing spiritual intuitiveness, she can never seem to find her car keys. She’d just barely made it home from Australia before their borders were closed, she’d been visiting there with indigenous elders in the Nambucca Heads community. 

When I managed to get her on the phone, in between the dozens of calls she makes a day, she told me, “Fear lowers the immune system, the antidote is raising the Joy Factor. Laughter is still the best medicine—it’s like the activating precursor for Vitamins A, B, C, D, E and every other nutrient you need to keep you well.” 

I couldn’t help thinking that it’s also a musical scale, the resonance of every song and every word we speak. 

“Kindness, forgiveness, compassion, calmness, generosity and connection are all contagious. Let’s get together and even in the quiet of our own hearts, pray for one another and for those doctors, delivery people, grocery store workers and others who are on the frontlines keeping us all going. Let’s infuse the entire planet with the absolute confidence that we’re coming out of this united and stronger than we could have ever imagined before.” She said. 

No one asked her what kind of a minister she was or what church she was from. Image: Ashkan Forouzani

She asked people to pay it forward, to reach out and call as many people as they could, and to ask them to reach out, too. And if making phone calls wasn’t their way of tipping the collective scales towards love and connection, she asked them what was. 

Think about it. One person. Times fifty people. Times twenty people. And so on. The ripple effect from the simplest act can spread across the entire planet almost instantly. 

How reassuring to feel that even from the shelter of our homes there’s so much we can do to empower each other. Now, in the atmosphere of global slowing down and simplicity, we can turn up the volume of love and understanding until it reaches to the farthest corners of Mother Earth—beyond words or technology, where even whales and polar bears can feel it. Together, with this shift, we can literally co-create a whole new world. 

We can do all this, one person at a time, through our actions, or merely through the silent intentions we hold in the light of our hearts. 

Creating the Shift, Together

Before I got off the phone with Aunt Claire she asked me if we could pray together. In her prayer she shared a blessing for all of us, each one. She said, “May every reader, every person that comes into contact with words and feelings of joy, love, and goodness at this hour be blessed a thousand times a thousand.”

So, dear reader, may your heart be filled with peace, may you know your own priceless value and may you look forward to waking to a transformed humanity—a thousand times a thousand. 

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. – Mother Teresa 

~

We all know or want to know an Aunt Claire … perhaps there is an Aunt Claire inside of you bursting to come out and shine a great light in the world? What are some of the ways you have been guided to express sweet acts of kindness in the world? What are some of the kind acts that have fallen before you on your path? Please share your stories to inspire more and more people to amplify the light. Right now the world needs your light; no matter how shy or confident you are, spot lights and soft candle glows all increase the brilliance of LOVE.

Dorothy Kolomeisky is the director of the Bet Lev Foundation and a member of Team UPLIFT. Through the Foundation she facilitates classes and coaching to support all kinds of people in having a better experience of life. She is passionate about raising global consciousness and playing in Mother Nature.