For reasons I don’t need to go into for this column, I’ve been struck several times the past week by the people in Tucson who have jobs and make decisions – oftentimes affecting others – who just go through the motions. They have no passion. They don’t seem to care.

So the timing couldn’t have been better for me to attend the 15th annual Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona luncheon April 16 at the Tucson Convention Center. The honorees were Ann Lovell and Lura Lovell, daughter and mother who are trustees of a foundation started in 1993 after the death of Lura Lovell’s husband. The foundation focuses on issues surrounding mental illness and seeks to advance integrative medicine.

But what struck me is the story Lura Lovell told the luncheon audience of more than 1,000. She recalled the story from the days of hearing it told on the radio at Christmas time.

I believe there are variations to the story but as told by Lovell it went like this, and I’m doing this by recollection:

Many years ago there was a man. Lovell called him Candle Burt – I think – but that sounds awfully close to Kendell Bert, who is a vice president at Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, so for the sake of the rest of this story, let me just call him Burt.

Burt was a juggler who traveled from town to town. People rarely paid much attention to him. As townsfolk went about doing their work, Burt felt more and more discouraged.

One day he passed by a monastery. He thought to himself that maybe if he went into the monastery, even doing the most menial tasks, it would be something positive that would give his life more meaning.

While he was in the monastery, Advent arrived. As others worked to prepare for the arrival of Christmas, Burt began to feel more inadequate than ever.

One night Burt took his blanket and juggling balls into the chapel and stood in front of the statue of the Blessed Mother, giving her the only talent he felt he had, juggling. A bright light filled the chapel and then the entire monastery. As the monks rushed into the chapel to see what had happened, they found Burt asleep on his blanket with a rose.

As the story goes, Burt, the man who thought he had so little talent, had brought joy to Mary, the mother of Christ, at Christmas time.

The luncheon that day also featured Olivia Harden, an eighth grader at Tucson Unified School District’s Gridley Middle School who plays softball both for her school and on a traveling team, participates in her student council, yearbook, National Junior Honor Society and maintains a 4.0 grade point average. She talked of the importance of father figures.

Life brings us all serious challenges and is not always routine. As both Lura Lovell and Olivia Harden pointed out that day, all of us have a gift of talent that we need to get to, treasure and use with passion.

You may think what you have to offer is mundane or routine. But it’s not.

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.