In 2008, I was invited to speak at a conference in Seattle, Washington, entitled “Seeds of Compassion” hosted by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. By Linda Kavelin-Popov.

It was an honour to be included as the co-founder of The Virtues Project™ and as a Baha’i, but I was very reticent to accept. As primary caregiver for my beloved brother, John Kavelin, who was dying of brain cancer, I didn’t want to leave him even for two days, although I knew my husband Dan would take good care of John in my absence. When we discovered John’s diagnosis several months before, we immediately cancelled all our scheduled Virtues Project events across the world in order to move into John’s home to look after him.

To view Linda’s presentation at the conference:

There were to be about 80,000 attendees at the conference, and it was also being televised with millions of viewers expected. John said, “Lin, I insist that you go. I can’t keep you all to myself. All those other people need to hear about virtues.”

And so, I went. The panel on which I was speaking featured individuals of several faiths, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Before the microphones turned on, we commented to one another how his purple Bishop’s robe and my pink jacket went together.

That was my second encounter with the Archbishop that day. A couple of hours before, box lunches were handed out to the VIP speakers’ section. To my own amazement, I asked for two. I thought, “Linda, why did you do that? Lord, it felt like You wanted me to.” I never ignore Divine nudges. They are unfailingly meaningful and usually lead me to serve someone who needs help.

I noticed that Bishop Tutu’s seat in the front of the auditorium was empty. Shortly, he returned. Realising he had missed the lunch delivery, I made my way to the front row where he was sitting, knelt in front of him and offered him the extra box lunch, slipping a beautiful bag containing a set of Virtues Reflection Cards underneath the box. I simply said, “Would you care for some lunch?” and thanked him for his service to the world, mentioning that there was a gift for him beneath the box. Later, we were seated together on stage for a panel on “How to plant seeds of compassion in children.”

I shared the story of my four-year-old son Christopher, who was for some reason avidly materialistic. He collected coins wherever he could find them, storing them in a blue velvet bag which had held gifted cologne. One day, he saw a television campaign showing children starving in Africa. He ran from the room and fetched his treasure. “Can I send this to those children, Mom? Then send it. Send it all.”

The Archbishop chuckled several times as I shared how essential it is to sacrifice growling and labelling children with shaming words and instead acknowledge their virtues. For me it was a truly sacred moment.

When I returned home to Dan and John, they had survived just fine without me, and John was delighted as I shared my stories of the conference.