Month: July 2020

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Book Review – 50 Children

A couple rescue 50 children

“To take a child from its mother seemed to be the lowest thing a human being could do. Yet it was as if we had drawn up in a lifeboat in a most turbulent sea.” – Eleanor Kraus

My daughters would say I’m ‘vibing’ today. I have to agree; with a day off to read, I’m definitely ‘vibing,’ according to their slang. What an absolute luxury. I’m in paradise.

I just finished the book, 50 Children by Steven Pressman. I’m not sure if the book teaser about the amazing rescue story or my love of history influenced my desire and need to read this book. Yes, I do say need, you see as an avid, impassioned reader, I always need to have a few books ‘at the ready’ to devour at a moments notice. This is actually one of three books I’m presently reading.

Reading relaxes me. That’s why you’ll find me reading at all hours. This is my release; reading gives me back my balance.

What do I think of this book? I think Steven Pressman did an excellent job of providing facts while also expressing the competing agendas of various political factions and the humanitarian calling of the Kraus’. It’s sometimes difficult to provide facts while also relaying depth of compassion, resolve, fear and wonder. Steven Pressman manages to do this well.

50 Children exemplifies how those with faith and fortitude can basically overcome insurmountable odds and succeed with their goals. Adversity, including, negative press, delays, roadblocks, changing political climate, mortal danger is no match for people with a vision. Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus rescue 50 Viennese children from their dire existence in Vienna during the Nazis’ policy of Judenrein (the exclusion of Jews in Vienna and Berlin in 1938 and 1939).

It’s easy to understand the difficulty of coordinating such an undertaking, but when I let myself go, I could feel the depth of the tremendously difficult heart wrenching emotional decisions the Kraus’ made and the toll they must’ve taken on both of them. Look at what they needed to do; they met family after family, shook their hands, smiled, listened and in the end they picked 50 children to go with them, while knowing the plight of all the parents and children left behind was catastrophic and tragic.

Could I’ve done this? I honestly have my doubts. The strength of this couple amazes me. They had children of their own. They knew what these parents were feeling. Take a minute and just think about this burden. Then think about the choices the parents had to make; they’re just as awful.

I find the thought of sending my child away to the unknown (yes, hoping they will be safe but not knowing) while also knowing it may be the last time I see them, absolutely horrifying. On the other hand, thinking about keeping them with me in harms way, knowing each day there is a greater possibility of the whole family being sent to a work camp or killed, even worse. How conflicted and emotionally tortured were these parents? Their reality most likely was concentrating on survival, each family member’s survival. How could they all get out?

Eleanor said of the fathers, “They looked so lifeless, so hopeless, so forlorn. Only one thing seemed to be left to these men, and that was pride in their children.” She witnessed one mother, Rosa Weisz saying to her child, “If you leave, your life will be saved, and then I will have a better chance of saving my own life.”

These families were desperate; this had to work out for them. Eleanor said when they asked each of the 50 families to meet them to complete paperwork, they arrived two hours earlier to prepare, but when they got there, the 50 families had already been waiting there for two hours. I could feel the goose pumps on my arms just reading about this. Sure, they arrived four hours early, the walls were closing in on them.

In the end Gil and Eleanor picked the 50 children. Feel Eleanor’s anguish and pain she describes during their questioning. “Will you leave your mama and papa and come to America with us? And each time the question was asked, I died a little more.”

I was emotional while reading this book; happy, sad and in awe of the courage of these two ordinary citizens, destined to be heroes. Read Steven Pressman’s book to learn about this rescue and the European and American political environment during this period. It is thought provoking. If interested in buying the book, at this time, Bookoutlet.com and Walmart are selling it for under $7. The other vendors I checked were higher.

Keep reading, learning and thinking.

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A Very Special Day

“Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow and no matter where you go in the world or the next, love will find you, attend you, and bless you.” – Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

This week we were blessed. We celebrated my younger daughter’s 10th Gotcha Day. What’s a Gotcha Day? It’s the anniversary of the day on which a child joins a family by adoption. This date may differ from the actual adoption day.

For us, our younger daughter’s Gotcha Day ended a three and a half year journey. It was the culmination of years of prayer, hope, excitement, wonder, sadness, stress, and delays. You can describe it, maybe, as a bitter-sweet experience. For us, God set our path and we knew love was our guide no matter what obstacle came our way. And the obstacles were many, but so were the amazing blessings.

We celebrate our daughter’s life, the miracle of her existence and ongoing growth. We thank God for his wondrous plan and for all those he placed in our path to make this miracle come to fruition.

What did we find when we arrived at the Adoption Center ten years ago? A child held in God’s palm. A beautiful nineteen pound little girl, then two years and seven months old. She was initially inconsolable, hoarse from crying and exhausted from her ordeal of riding three hours in a van to the city.

We were finally able to calm her a bit when a water stick with a ball that floated back and forth caught her eye. We had our opening, you could see it in her eyes; they danced and lit up. What was this thing? How did the ball go back and forth? The wonder of this object broke her misery.

We quickly began sharing other things that intrigued her; a recorder that played Winnie the Pooh songs, a small board book, her own Winnie the Pooh. Relief, we could all breathe and relax. Our older daughter, five at the time, came out from hiding behind us, her place of retreat when the crying didn’t stop. Our family unit was now in tune with one another.

Once back at the hotel, we found she would not fit in any of the 2 – 3 year old toddler clothing we brought. She was still in 6-9 month old clothing, could not eat solid food, wasn’t able to speak and could only stand and walk a few steps before going back to crawling. Every change in her environment brought on another bout of uncontrollable crying.

What else? She was and still is a miracle, a ray of sunshine with a smile that could and still can light up a room. Her eyes danced and continue to dance with love and laughter. She was and is a joy.

We also celebrate the memories of those we met along the way and the friendships that have continued over time. Poy, a lovely young girl working at the hotel on the courtesy floor was our light. She was so kind always ready to help with directions, email access, snacks for the girls and anything else we needed. Poy was also such a source of encouragement and support. Just her smile greeting us as we walked in, lifted all our spirits. God sent us a guardian angel to help us along the way.

Funny, the girls still have the crown tiara she bought for our younger daughter and markers for drawing for our older daughter. Over the years, she has sent them a blow up pool and wishes for their 100 Good Wishes Albums. Isn’t it amazing? A chance meeting touched us forever.

We also think about our adoption guide, David. Once we found our little one couldn’t eat solids and wouldn’t drink milk or formula, he immediately picked up a special tea for children packed with vitamins. He helped us figure out dishes we could order for our daughter that she could eat like, steamed eggs with soy sauce, soup, and Congee.

We give thanks for our friends that watched our home and decorated for our return. It was a beautiful surprise that will always be remembered. The girls had gift baskets and decorated rooms and we had a refrigerator filled with fresh food. For a travel wearied family, this was our nirvana.

One of our younger daughter’s names is Jing, meaning crystal. The Chinese characters for crystal are three suns. We gave our daughter this name because she sparkles like a crystal. God has granted us a gift that sparkles, shines and provides more light than three suns. So yes, we celebrate. We are grateful for being granted such blessings. Gotcha Day is a very special day.

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Nature’s Reviving Power

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. – John Burroughs

The stresses of work and life are so overwhelming at times. How do I bring back balance? For me, a walk on a nearby path gives me back my perspective so I can transcend the noise around me.

This beautiful fawn along with its mother and siblings brought me peace and joy one recent morning. I felt as if I had intruded on something so simple and beautiful, a family’s time together. The simplicity of existence. This provided a clear message. Let go of the burdens and the pressures, just live and enjoy the simple blessings that surround me.

“The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” – Jill Davis

The ocean piques my senses. I can see, smell and hear the ocean’s strength, determination and resilience. The unending ebb and flow of the waves are calming, consistent and in a way majestic.

The ocean provides me with courage and reignites the drive in me to persevere and face my struggles head on. I’m so thankful for the ocean’s ability to speak to my soul.

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” – Henry David Thoreau

I walk with nature and feel refreshed and born anew. Nature is my healing balm. Maybe it is the beauty or the solitude. Maybe God’s gifts are so clearly visible. I feel blessed and hopeful by the time I finish my walk.

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – Rachel Carson

Just as nature goes on, so must we. We must learn how to nurture our souls and persevere. This next part of my life, I seek spiritual alignment.

“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.” – Linda Hogan

Just as nature speaks, we too as humans speak. How much of what we say is simply not heard? Do we take the time to listen to the quiet child or the angry teenager? How much have we missed of what our spouses have said in unspoken words? When do we stop to listen?

Maybe just as we learn to convene with nature, we too must learn how to communicate with one another. If we were actually communicating with one another, would we be living in a world with such social strife?

I think I shall focus on communicating and understanding others. I must remember, another can be communicating but not with spoken words.

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Photography

Inspirational Beauty

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” – Paulo Coelho

When we finally hear our soul speaking to us and know that we must care for the flickering light within, we are ready to continue walking our path. Even if the path requires us to have the courage to change; we will be at peace. Our soul will nurture us and provide flowers in our path.

“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard de Nerval

“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.” – Herbert A. Ott

“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Each year doves come and build their next in this tree. High winds, rain storms or just the precarious positioning of the nest cause the nest to fall year after year. The doves do not give up. Their resilience has them coming back year after year to build their new nest. May we each have such fortitude, determination and unending perseverance to achieve what we set out to do.

“Might I, ” quavered Mary, “might I have a bit of earth?” “Earth!” he repeated. “what do you mean?” “To plant seeds in – to make things grow – to see them come alive.” – Frances H. Burnett, The Secret Garden

As I drink in the beauty of the flowers around our home and see the daily changes that take place with each flower, I’m in awe of the miracle God created. For years, I looked at the flowers, saw how pretty and colorful they looked and moved on. It was so easy to give that nod of acknowledgement because life was going so fast. Now I’ve learned, taking the time to be grateful for the simple miracles soothes my soul.

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Life

Inconsequential Yet Monumental Emotionally

What do you think of this plant? Your reaction may be to say something like, it’s nice, it’s a plant or it’s odd with the stem sticking out. Some may even say, why are you wasting my time writing about this plant. Funny, on other days, I may have had the same reactions or thoughts.

Well, let me tell you about this plant. Last week while returning a purchase to Home Depot with my husband, I came across this plant. I was immediately drawn to it. I though, passed it by because I know priorities and this plant was not one of them. While in queue, the plant was still on my mind. I had to go look at it again.

I looked at each of the plants and I especially took notice of those with the stem growing from the middle. The changing feelings and emotions welled within me. I had to take this plant home. I had to have it. It didn’t matter that I certainly didn’t need another plant, or that this was not what I walked out the door to buy. It may have been a silly frivolous purchase but to me the dollar value could not be assigned.

Why all the fuss, the emotion? Well for me, this plant took me back to another time. I had a plant just like this one. It was among a group of plants, but this plant was by far the smallest, the size of my thumb. This little plant out of all the others, just kept surviving; so small yet it held on and grew. It doubled in size and then it doubled in size again. Then to my surprise, a stem grew out of the top of the plant.

I called my dad to let him know that this special little plant had another plant growing from a stem that grew from its middle. I was absolutely thrilled. Of course my dad knew all about my plants so he too shared my excitement.

You see at that time, I was on my own and I loved growing plants. I had a window filled with plants and then over time, my living room became a hot house. The lighting was perfect for growing plants. I would spend hours caring for them and re-potting them when needed. I began to give away plants just to bring some smiles.

This particular plant was one of my favorites because it was a survivor. I could separate the plant at the bottom; additional plants would grow out from the sides of the plant and each time a stem grew, another one or two baby plants grew from the top. I actually visited as many garage sales and flea markets as I could in search of pretty pots. My aunt visited garage sales and flea markets by her home and gave me the pots she collected.

Soon my friends, family and colleagues had plants from me. I then branched out. When consultants came to work on projects with my team, I gave them plants. I gave anyone that mentioned they like plants, one of their own. Hours upon hours of joy were spent with these plants.

When I married, my parents helped us move; they took the plants with them. My father loved all the plants,. Since our townhouse didn’t have the room or the lighting for all the plants, my dad kept them. Then sadness struck, he passed on. Either to rid herself of the hurt or just not wanting to spend the time, my mom threw all the plants away.

When I visited, I saw the plants were no longer in their spots by the windows. It was a rough time, my father-in-law was dying of cancer at the same time. My father being gone, the plants being gone and the pending death of my father-in-law took something out of me.

What more could be asked then, how could you throw all the plants away? My mom was suffering and trying to move on in her own way. We each cope with loss and change differently. She did what she felt she needed to do.

I moved on. My husband became the one with the green thumb and his gardening has always surrounded us with the beauty of growth and new life. Our neighbors and strangers look at the gardening and compliment him on his plants and landscaping. It is a labor of love as my plants were my labor of love.

Last week, I was given a gift. When I saw and bought this plant, a part of me that I left behind so long ago, started to grow from within. All the happiness and love from the plants felt so long ago, started to peek out from deep within my soul. I can’t express in words the emotions and feelings this little plant brings forth from my heart. Maybe an inconsequential plant to some, but a treasure, a blessing and hope for me.

I guess in life we all have small inconsequential things that spark so much emotion within us. I wish each of you the joy of bringing that inconsequential thing to the surface for you to enjoy and savor.

“It is the small things in life which count; it is the inconsequential leak which empties the biggest reservoir.” – Charles Comiskey