I learned one of the greatest lessons in life while visiting with seniors in long-term care facilities. They all shared the same insight gained in many years of living: at their stage of life, they realized that it was not money, possessions, or careers that mattered after all. What did matter was how many people they had loved and how many people they had allowed to love them.

I was the oldest of six children who were fortunate enough to have been raised by loving, compassionate parents. From the time we were little, Mom and Dad made sure that we paid attention to other people’s situations—not in a codependent type of way, but in a caring, loving way. My parents would sit down and talk to us about how important it was to be grateful for what we had and to try to help others who were not as fortunate.

My maternal grandmother lived with us for eighteen years, so I had firsthand experience interacting with an older person. It was always wonderful talking to Grandma, because she had time, she had insight, she had so much to offer. My parents both worked, and Grandma was always available—emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

The Gift of Music

I am from a Catholic background and attended parochial schools. In addition to my own spiritual nourishment at home, I was nurtured by the priests and nuns at school. They would take me around to visit shut-ins in our community. One sister would say, “Oh, Bob, get out your guitar and play a little bit of ‘You Are My Sunshine,’” and immediately I would. I felt such a response of love and energy from the people I was singing for. Music meant more to them than just a way of being entertained.

Music became my career. I started out in the early ’70s as a folksinger, working in concerts and nightclubs. Wherever I traveled, I made a habit of going into the local nursing homes during the day to visit and perform. No matter if I was in Des Moines, Chicago, or New York, I found that in this audience there was such a need for music, especially gospel music.

These people had been cut off from the rest of society, and they were very lonely. Because music was performed just for them, they knew that somebody noticed them and cared about them. I knew that I had filled a need and really nourished them, and I found myself wanting to do more for them.

Yet I never dreamed that doing more would turn into founding Renaissance Enterprises in 1988. I enlisted the services of a lot of friends and other professional artists whom I’d met through the years. We started going to care facilities to enrich the lives of the senior citizens and children who lived there.

We are a group of individuals who take the gospel message very seriously. And that is a message of love and service, which means we do a lot of hard work. We learned early on that if we loved people for how they looked on the outside, we weren’t ever going to grow spiritually. Those of us in Renaissance try to look deeper into the individual’s needs in a loving, caring way.

I remember one sweet little girl who lived in a center for the developmentally disabled. She was sitting in the bleachers at one of our Christmas concerts and looked totally withdrawn from what was going on. I asked if any of the kids would like to come up and sing with me, and just about everybody raised their hands—but not this little girl. So I knelt down beside her and started singing a Christmas carol. All of a sudden she started singing with me, and her face lit up with a smile. Mine was a simple gesture, but I think we need to learn to return to this kind of simplicity in our world. We are blessed as we do simple things that bring the blessing of joy to others.

Making a Difference

When I think about the people that I looked up to and tried to emulate, my parents and my grandmother come to mind. Then there are people who have been examples of love and caring to me and multitudes of others: Saint Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and, of course, Jesus. These people did not accumulate great wealth, but they made a powerful difference of good in our world. They were great spiritual leaders.

I think that the world is suffering from a spiritual starvation right now. What is sad is that although we have made incredible advances in the last century—our waistlines are bigger, our checkbooks are bigger, our scientific breakthroughs are bigger—our spiritual awareness needs to grow in a big way also. I believe that in the twenty-first century we can make as many advances spiritually as we did technologically in the twentieth century. I know we will when we devote ourselves to being loving and caring toward one another.

Bob Rowe performs more than 100 free shows a year and has recorded several CDs and audio-cassettes, including Coming Home Again and Christmas Bells. All proceeds from the sale of these two albums go directly to support Renaissance Enterprises, a nonprofit, volunteer artists’ group founded by Bob in 1988. Its mission is to bring the arts to residents of nursing homes and other care facilities. Bob also assists in maintaining the Renaissance Enterprises Web site: www.visioncouncil.org/bobrowe


Back to top

Back to inspirational stories