Heres a re-edited version of my post last night. Please delete my previous two posts on this subject. If you choose to share it, share this version. Thanks. Had a wonderful birthday. No, my real birthday isn’t January 1st—it’s July 13th and thanks for the well-wishes! A friend from Washington, DC came and whisked me off to Lake Tahoe and Reno. She has a “system” for slot machines. I know there’s no such thing. But we won! Twenty-two thousand pennies followed by another eight thousand pennies! It was hilarious. We just sat there on a double seat, covering our mouths with our hands and laughing ourselves silly. I know there isn’t really a method to winning at the penny slots. It was a special blessing. And a hoot! While we were together, my friend told me a story about seven young women from Nepal. Some had either been put out of their family homes or had run away. One was run off by a grandmother who told her she was too ugly for a man to marry. The seven met in Katmandu. As they talked, they decided to work together and do something great. They decided to climb Mt. Everest. They found a month-long class on mountain climbing, and took it together. They raised the money they needed. And sure enough, they climbed the world’s highest mountain together. One of them, aged fourteen, became the youngest woman ever to climb Mt. Everest. When it was over, they decided they didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives reminiscing about the day they climbed the mountain. They needed another goal, something to work toward. So, they decided to climb the seven highest peaks on the world’s seven continents (See: sevensummitswomen.org). The seven summit climbers networked themselves with schools. They visit, talk about their lives, then give a climbing demonstration. Their basic message is that no matter how poor or unloved or rejected, you can climb a mountain. All you have to do is determine to do it and work hard along with friends also determined to get to the top. My friend heard about them and was taken with their story, their determination, and their ability to help each other. She had been to Nepal earlier a year or so earlier and knew how kind and gracious were the people there were. I was impressed. My friend returned to Washington Wednesday night. Thursday, she emailed a photo of the seven summit climbers with Secretary of State John Kerry! Then she called Friday night and said she actually met all of them! She told them how much their lives had blessed her, and how kind the Nepali people had been to her during her visit there. She said she wanted to return the kindness she received in Nepal to the seven climbers now in America. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a gift. She told them it was “Funny Money” for them to use for themselves, for something Fun. I’m sure she gave it in the form of folding, paper money. (Let’s face it—no matter how many mountains you climb, no one wants to go to foreign airports in remote places schlepping around a half-dozen wheelbarrows full of pennies!) For me, it was the icing on my birthday cake. Thank-you, God. And thank-you, Obi. Oh yeah—as of today they have climbed six of the seven highest peaks on this planet. Their current project is to climb the seventh, which is on the Antarctic.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 02:37:53 +0000
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