www.district3780.org

Making Waves of Change

Inaugural Address of RI District 3780 Governor Jose Francisco "Jess" Q. Cifra last July 3, 2011

Each morning when you wake up, you begin with a smile, a prayer, a shower, breakfast, and off you go to work. All this is what happens each morning in our lives as we prepare to meet the tasks and the challenges of the day.

This is the same in Rotary. Each year is a new beginning, like the morning after a long, hard day of work in chasing a dream. A year comes to a close, and another begins.

This, my friends, is the morning of my year as governor of our district. We have done our preparations, and like breaking bread in the morning, tonight we shall have our fill of fun and fellowship to begin the year. Tomorrow, we shall be off to work - real work - to pursue the dreams we have laid for our year. With rolled-up sleeves, we shall work to our bones as if it were the last day of our lives, to ensure our success.

This reminds me of the words of John H. Finley, a famous American educator: "To be seeing the world made new every morning, as if it were the morning of the first day, and then to make the most of it for the individual soul as if each were the last day, is the daily curriculum of the mind's desire." In our desire to build a beautiful world, we shall give the best of ourselves to the tasks that need to be done each new day, but we shall work in the spirit of fellowship. We shall have fun and we shall enjoy ourselves as we toil in the company of friends who share the same ideal.

Tonight I take up the challenge of my mandate as governor of our district. As I do, the words of the famous humanitarian, Mother Teresa come ringing in my ear: "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." These words remind me of the impact of what the governor can do in the discharge of his duties and responsibilities. But no matter what he does alone, he cannot change the world. He is but one man in the sea of human concerns. He needs the help of every Rotarian in the district and of those well meaning individuals who share in the dream of a better world. Together they can make not only ripples but also waves of change that can build better lives for a bright and secure tomorrow.

Mother Teresa's words also remind me of the impact of Rotary on my life. My personal introduction to Rotary came in 2001 when I was invited to join the Rotary Club of Loyola Heights. Through the years I realized the magic that Rotary does in our lives. Rotary provides us with a mission to bring water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, medical attention to the sick, education to the illiterate, clothing to the needy. It also moves us to provide funds for disaster relief and gainful employment for the unemployed. Rotary helps us become better individuals while improving the lives of others, touching those lives to become better and more meaningful.

These are but some of the things we do in Rotary. There is much more to be done for humanity. This is why Rotary empowers us through its spirit of service, the spirit that opens our eyes to the needs of others, to the misery that destroys the lives and future of people who have less in life. Now that the spirit is aglow in us, Rotary provides us with a guiding light to keep us moving in the right direction to achieve maximum results. Rotary provides us with a theme that inspires us to positive action.

Our year's theme, conceived in the heart and mind of RI President Kalyan Banerjee, is "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity." It is the core message that should inspire us to accomplish two things: to realize our individual and collective strengths or potentials and to use these strengths or potentials fully to serve humanity.

Nobody is perfect, so they say. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. But to become stronger, we must accept change and make the necessary inner change to be able to convert our weaknesses into strengths. We must set this example for others to follow. We find the meaning of this thought in the words of Mohandas Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

To gather more strength, we must muster all the forces within our reach. We must start with our families and our partners in service. We must build strategic partnerships to gather more resources to wage war against poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, crime, drug abuse, degradation of the environment, and all the other ills that beset humanity.

To embrace humanity, we must be one with the rest of the world. For whatever our way of life, wherever we are, wherever we live, or whatever we believe in, we share the same human concerns and the same dreams as citizens of the world. We all desire for happy and contented lives, for peace, and for a future that is bright and secure. We must be one with the world. And to achieve that, we must work to promote friendship and peace.

My friends the dream to build a beautiful world, is one that captures the heart and mind of everyone. But it is one dream that needs a great multitude of men and women whose hearts are aflame with the passion to serve and whose hands can cast stones to create ripples of change in the troubled waters of people's lives.

This is why tonight as I take up the challenge of leadership, I ask you to stand by me and work with me. Following the thoughts of Mother Teresa, let us cast stones together. Individually, we may have made ripples through the years in our unique world of service, but those ripples may have died on the way to the outermost fringes of the water. This year, let us cast stones together and continue to create ripples of change that will last through time. Deep in our hearts we believe that others who see and feel those ripples of change in their lives will cast their own stones to help create waves of change in our world.

By creating those waves of change we can build a more beautiful and peaceful world.