Category Archives: inspiration

inspiration for an 11 year old girl

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i’m breaking my tradition of just posting an inspirational quote with no title, no commentary because yesterday someone found their way to this blog by doing an internet search for “how can 11 yr.old girl accept being biracial.”  i’ve been mildly haunted by this.  i don’t have advice to offer from personal experience because when i was eleven, i didn’t think of myself as biracial exactly.  so, though i was dealing with it and certainly many of my issues stemmed from it, i wasn’t pondering my life through that lens.  i couldn’t have verbalized my angst in those terms.  and, even if i could have, who knows how vastly different my situation was from that of the child who prompted the search.  anyway, i just thought i’d post a few of these inspirational thingies i’m so very fond of in hopes that one or two of them might be just the perspective shifter or the advice needed to help in this situation….

just thought we should know

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David M. French Dies at 86

Ever wonder who tended to the injuries of demonstrators brutalized during the civil rights protests of the 1960s? David M. French, a former Howard University professor of pediatric surgery and one of the first African-American board certified surgeons, coordinated many of those first aid efforts, as just one piece of a long career that merged medicine and public service. He died March 31 at the age of 86.

David M. French (Ellsworth Davis/Washington Post)

After witnessing firsthand the lack of quality health care available to blacks in the South at civil rights protests (he once converted his family van into an ambulance to lead a medical unit overseeing the care of Mississippi activists demonstrating against racism), French became committed to improving the health of underserved people and began to focus on preventative and community medicine.

French founded Boston University’s department of community health in 1969. He also established a network of community health centers in Boston before moving to Ivory Coast in the 1970s. There, he led an effort to train nurses and improve public health in 20 countries across the continent.

French returned to the United States in the mid-1980s and retired to Barboursville, Va. But his work didn’t end then. He went on to serve as medical director of Helen Keller International, a New York-based nonprofit organization that runs public health programs in developing countries. More recently, he served as medical officer for the nonprofit service and development African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Read more at The Washington Post.

the middle way

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photo by brooke golightly

The Big Squeeze

Excerpted from “True Happiness”

Sounds True, Inc.

This is the place where most of us hang out for a long time, in what I sometimes call the big squeeze, where you are sort of caught between your idealistic notions of how you want to be (and how you think everyone else should be as well), and your “human frailty” if you want to call it that – the realness of your cravings, or the strength of your habitual patterns. You are sort of caught and rubbed between these two things…

(the sound of Ani-la rubbing her hands together is heard in the recording over a brief period of silence)

And, it’s very interesting, because on the one hand there is your idealism, how one “should” be. And then you are up against how you actually are. And interestingly enough – if you actually allow yourself to be rubbed instead of being harsh on yourself, if you will allow yourself to be rubbed – this is a place were some sort of real balance comes in. You really learn what is the middle way between idealism and craving, some kind of middle way where you can hold your seat, you can keep your heart open and stay receptive to these difficult places. You can stay open and more and more you can not harm yourself by doing the same things over and over.

But it’s half way… you’re sort of right in the middle of something, and I really think this is the place where we learn compassion for ourselves. This is the place where we begin to have some appreciation for what other people are up against, some real empathy, instead of just criticizing them all the time.

When you see yourself, how strong your aspiration is and how you are not always able to measure up, you learn so much from this inbetween state of a really good-hearted strong wish to not block your buddha-nature, and yet still finding yourself in that very place.

centenarians

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A couple of days ago I found the (written) interviews with centenarians on one of my favorite blogs (which wordpress refuses to let me link to right now, but on my blogroll it’s lickystickypickyme.) I was intrigued, so I dug around the interweb for some more interesting 100-plus-year-olds and came up with the videos.  I just love them.

Touching interviews with centenarians, about their look on their long lives:(clockwise) Alice Herz-Sommer, 108 I survived the concentration camps, and this is something extraordinary. Thousands and millions that had to die, and we are sitting here. When we are old, we are aware of the beauty of life. Young people take everything for granted. It all depends on the character you’re born with. Everything I forget. Even if I write it down, I forget to look. I had an excellent memory and now, I’m an idiot! [Laughs] What do I do against it? I learn Bach by heart and play the piano. My son died aged 64. He was a gifted musician, and a wonderful son. My only child. Nellie Wright, 103 I don’t get by, I exist from one day to the other. I’m hoping for the end to come. I’m tired of it. Why should it be like this? Not a penny in my purse! I’ve worked 74 years. Why am I here? I’m waiting for God to straighten this out. I should be home! My husband died while I was in here. I never even got to his funeral. It doesn’t matter. I’ve been a decent girl, never drunk or gone with men. I’ve just lived and worked like a silly fool. Helen Turner, 101 I’m going to live to 120! I had a party and champagne at 100. Actually, I can’t remember much of it, as I’d had a lot to drink. I was engaged once, but I never met… well, I knew what I was looking for and I found it, but too late. He’s a professor. Of course he’s married. And I can’t imagine he’s the sort of person to go off the rails. Not that I wouldn’t want him to. I’m not saying I’m that good! Nora Hardwick, 105 It’s in the genes, I suppose. My mother was 94 and my eldest sister was 96. Granny was 97. I’ve kept my brain active. I read and do crosswords. And I have a little shot of whisky at bedtime. I think that helps. If it wasn’t for my daughters, I’d have to have somebody in every day, but, you see, Maureen has showered me today and Jan’s washed my hair. They keep me clean, that’s the main thing. I’ve treated myself to a little scooter that I can get out on, in the fresh air. I don’t like sitting all day. I take every day as it comes. Each one is a bonus.

Touching interviews with centenarians, about their look on their long lives:
(clockwise)

  1. Alice Herz-Sommer, 108
    I survived the concentration camps, and this is something extraordinary. Thousands and millions that had to die, and we are sitting here. When we are old, we are aware of the beauty of life. Young people take everything for granted. It all depends on the character you’re born with.
    Everything I forget. Even if I write it down, I forget to look. I had an excellent memory and now, I’m an idiot! [Laughs] What do I do against it? I learn Bach by heart and play the piano. My son died aged 64. He was a gifted musician, and a wonderful son. My only child.
  2. Nellie Wright, 103
    I don’t get by, I exist from one day to the other. I’m hoping for the end to come. I’m tired of it. Why should it be like this? Not a penny in my purse! I’ve worked 74 years.
    Why am I here? I’m waiting for God to straighten this out. I should be home! My husband died while I was in here. I never even got to his funeral. It doesn’t matter. I’ve been a decent girl, never drunk or gone with men. I’ve just lived and worked like a silly fool.
  3. Helen Turner, 101
    I’m going to live to 120! I had a party and champagne at 100. Actually, I can’t remember much of it, as I’d had a lot to drink.
    I was engaged once, but I never met… well, I knew what I was looking for and I found it, but too late. He’s a professor. Of course he’s married. And I can’t imagine he’s the sort of person to go off the rails. Not that I wouldn’t want him to. I’m not saying I’m that good!
  4. Nora Hardwick, 105
    It’s in the genes, I suppose. My mother was 94 and my eldest sister was 96. Granny was 97. I’ve kept my brain active. I read and do crosswords. And I have a little shot of whisky at bedtime. I think that helps.
    If it wasn’t for my daughters, I’d have to have somebody in every day, but, you see, Maureen has showered me today and Jan’s washed my hair. They keep me clean, that’s the main thing. I’ve treated myself to a little scooter that I can get out on, in the fresh air. I don’t like sitting all day. I take every day as it comes. Each one is a bonus.