Day 29 Ripples of Kindness #SOL17

This story caught my attention as I watched in on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HumansofJudaism/?pnref=story (Posted on March 11th, 2016- pinned post.) 

 Earlier this month, I attended a Long Island Writing Project workshop at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County. The Holocaust is such a painful topic: I'm embarrassed to say I rarely let my mind think about it because I find it so upsetting. As a parent, I find it even harder to think about what so many families endured and how so many lives were ripped apart. It's inconceivable to me that such evil exists, yet we know it does.

 This story, though, makes me think of a mother's influence. The lady speaking in the video describes how her mother packed chocolate for her, knowing there would be awful times ahead and the chocolate might somehow make things less horrific. The mother very kindly asks her daughter if she can give her chocolate to the lady going into labor, knowing the lady might not make it. The lady giving birth does make it- and so does her baby- who is described as a "feeble little thing" who never once cries...until the concentration camp is liberated. At 6 months, the baby cries for the first time and is "born again." There is an amazing twist that comes near the end of the video.....watch it to see!

 My takeaways from this video: Ripples of kindness can change the course of a life, or lives. Sometimes it is years before we see the result of a kind act and many times we will never know how what we did impacted someone. Teachers know this best of all. We are gardeners, planting seeds, toiling, believing but sometimes never getting to see the blooming. Sometimes the blooming comes years after the planting. 

 I think of all my teachers and mentors- the kindest, truest people who planted seeds of confidence, integrity, passion, purpose, service, hope, and love. I think of myself as a tapestry of their influences- the best of me comes from the best of them. And I plant seeds of confidence, integrity, passion, purpose, service, hope and love in the young lives I encounter, hoping one day I might be one piece of their story, one stitch in the tapestry of their life, the best of me now a part of them. 

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