There are days we wake up and all is not right with the world. Somebody is wreaking havoc and it takes everything we have to keep going, keep looking for peace somewhere within us to find a way to make things better for ourselves, our family, our community and the world. On these days we feel lost and alone in a universe that seems so foreign all of a sudden. If we all focus on what we can do in our personal worlds to make things better, the collective effect will be extraordinary. It's not always easy to believe doing something small can have a big effect, but sometimes it's all we can do on any given day - believe. It's these days I read and re-read what my husband wrote for me so long ago about how each of us can make a difference for the children in our world who feel lost and alone, everyday...
We shall walk, hand in hand, the pathways of light to reach the children who have been neglected, orphaned and abandoned.
We shall be the inspiration to uplift their heavy hearts and foster the smile of hope that they so rightly deserve to wear upon their precious faces.
We shall read them marvelous stories to expand their imagination, and return the wonder to their eyes.
We shall nurture their hearts with caring, open their minds with books and comfort them with warm cozy pajamas for bedtime to lessen their dreaded fear of not belonging.
We shall encourage them to dream their dreams filled with desire and the magic of possibilities.
We shall take comfort in knowing that we have touched the children deeply, tendered their gentle souls and sown the seeds of love that they so desperately needed.
We will be filled with an inexplicable joy knowing that in giving we truly made a difference. And when the sun sets upon our mission, we will all have moved together through the darkness and awakened to a brighter day.
And on that day, the children will belong to themselves, walking hand in hand as one with us the pathways of light, reaching out to the neglected, the orphaned and the abandoned.