One of my favorite books, The Celestine Prophecy, teaches us to look for coincidences in our lives and to pay attention to what they may be trying to tell us. So, yesterday I went to lunch with three girl friends. One of them, T was talking about how she sent her 16 year old son to Africa for a month as part of a volunteer program. He flew internationally alone. I mean there were other people on the plane, just not anyone he knew. He would be incommunicado for the month. The cell phone and laptop will be of no use and it is unlikely he will have access to electricity. I kept thinking how brave my friend was and what a wonderful gift she was giving her child. True many of us cannot afford to give these kinds of experiences to our children, but we could and should find other ways to show our children we have confidence in them and encourage a sense of adventure. I am sure it will change the trajectory of her son's life. He will realize there is not anything he cannot do.
Later in the day I went to a fundraiser at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. It featured a storyteller named Connie Regan-Blake and her program was called Light & Shadow: A Storyteller's Journey in Africa. She explained her trip to Uganda in 2007 and how she found out about a group called BeadforLife. It was a remarkable story of courage and more importantly of how to find joy in life no matter what your circumstances.
Is Africa calling me?? Or perhaps BeadforLife is a non-profit I should be helping?
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