REFLECTIONS ON GRATITUDE DAY 3 1- Im not sure how to express this but almost for as long back as I can remember, at least from the time I was about 10, Ive had an awareness that I could have been one of the 1.5 million children murdered in the holaucaust and that I wasnt because there were people who were willing to leave everything behind and cross the ocean in steerage to a land that was strange, a language they didnt speak and a culture that was completely foreign to them. Their courage has given me the chance to have a life filled with opportunity, choice and safety. There are not enough words to express my gratitude for that. 2- One of the gifts my dad gave to all of his children was both an appetite for travel as well as an appreciation and love of the differences between the peoples in the world. I am so grateful that I have been given the means and the opportunity to see so very much of this world and to learn from my travels that there is so much more that we have in common than that separates us. Early in my travels I started to collect handmade dolls and soon realised that no matter how sophisticated or how primitive, every culture that I encountered made dolls for their children to play with. Mothers everywhere have the same concerns for their children, (although recently Id say there may be exceptions), health, safety and some form of useful education. My travels gave me the same perspective on boundaries that Merlin gave to Arthur in The Once and Future King. The only real boundaries between us are the ones,we artificially create and impose. As part of this awareness I have to state that one of the places I am most appreciative of having visited is Tibet. The people are kind and beautiful and the fact that the cultural genocide they are being subjected to by the Chinese for at least the past 40 years simply is not a media issue makes me sad but happy that I was able to actually spend time in their Shangra La before it is no more. 3- As a result of all that I have seen in so many places I am profoundly grateful to have a simple roof over my head to shelter me, enough food on the table to sustain me and the love of people I value to get me through the rough patches.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:26:27 +0000
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