This week in our Laddership Circle, we've been reflecting on our motivations to serve.

What came to mind was my experiences hosting Karma Kitchen here in Austria. It was the best experience and gave me a total different point of view how intrinsic motivation looks like. At the beginning, I always had the feeling that I need to thank people for their help. But then I realized that it´s a giving and receiving all the time.

As an example: the stories the volunteers told us afterwards were amazing. There´s a story about an elderly man I would like to share:

One day we were hosting Karma Kitchen and quite a lot of our regular customers did not know that this Thursday was Karma Kitchen day. Usually there´s an elderly man who comes every day around 4 pm. He is always ordering the same dish, and he normally looks and acts quite grumpy. This is because he is still suffering from the death of his wife.

When he was asking to pay on Karma Kitchen day, one waiter gave him a wooden heart and said, "Someone who loves you has already paid for you".

All of a sudden this grumpy looking guy had tears in his eyes, became very soft and was stunned. It was a very special moment.