leaving the past, through peaceful valleys go

(from upper left corner)




I have worried a bit about what to post following my last two posts and the depth of the comments you shared..... Then today I put together a small package with a card as a farewell gift to our sponsored child in Sudan, Huwaida, because the sponsor organization notified us in a letter a few weeks ago that she will soon be graduating out of the program (they "age out" at 18). The Donor Relations Executive who wrote encouraged us to send a parting letter and I bought the card last week but it sat on my desk since we signed it because I've been putting off the goodbye to this beautiful girl who we have come to love.

The card was a tri-fold with this printed on the front: All the truth and beauty, all the peace and strength you are seeking are right there in your heart... I thought that was an encouraging message for her.

So, this afternoon I opened the card fully to use the inside for my last communication and I was surprised that on the last flap the card's printed message continued and ended with:

Be still and listen. Be brave and believe.

Then I knew I would share the above piece in this post: an antique, framed, gold-leaf lettering-with-original-watercolors plaque that I found in one of my grandparent's old trunks in my mother's garage following her death......

During the last two weeks of her life when she lay in a hospital bed that Hospice provided in her home I did a lot of fussing over her. I fluffed her pillows, altered the settings of the bed, played music, brought in roses from her fall garden, prepared requested foods that she didn't eat, squirted the morphine into her mouth as she stretched up to take it. It was on one of those afternoons when I was trying to make her comfortable and the hospital bed rapidly unfolded when I moved a wrong lever, causing the bed to flatten totally and her former sitting position along with it, that she whispered to me with her eyes closed: "Be Still, honey, be still." Those words altered the course of all my subsequent actions around her deathbed. It was her last lesson for me and a great and good and necessary one.

What was so very strange about the discovery of the Be Still plaque was that my mother had all of her parents' antique paintings, other plaques, and a child's needlepoint sampler made at Gettysburg up on the walls of every house she lived in since the death of her mother. I grew up around those things. But here was this one dusty plaque lying on the bottom of the antique trunk in the worse shape of the three kept by my mother (the other two contained letters, clothes, "keepers"), with very little else inside and nothing else worth saving. I had never seen it before. Did my mother know it was there? If she did I can't understand why she left it there. After so many decades and moves surely she'd have discovered it and remembered it from her childhood. It was and will remain a mystery, one that I had to use Windex to see for the first time and, as I wiped away the filth of ages and saw the words Be Still, of course I thought it to be a special message for me.

You can click on the picture to read the gold-leaf words but I'm also posting the wording below...

Be Still and Know.
-by Benjamin Keech 1909

O heart of mine, be still, and cease repining!
The future ways are beautiful and bright,
For on life's distant paths, God's sun is shining,
If we have but the power to view aright.

Be still, mine heart, and listen to the pealing
Of radiant music from the unseen spheres.
It has sweet messages for thee, revealing
The greater good that waits, in coming years.

Be still and know. The future ways are pleasant
Even as we may make to-day more fair.
Tomorrow brings the fruitage of the present:
Then sort and tend each seed with thoughtful care.

The past is dead. Forget its bitter sorrow.
And, leaving it, through peaceful valleys go.
Bright glad to-day! Thrice bright and glad tomorrow!
Be still, O restless heart -- be still and know.

I feel a personal need to keep this piece at my blog for some days, so the regular Old Postcard Wednesday post will be deferred until Friday this week.

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Peace be upon you, Huwaida

We received a letter from Huwaida in Sudan on Saturday. She is one of the children we sponsor through Plan USA/International. (To learn more about Huwaida you can read my introductory post with a 2007 photo).

It made the weekend for me just to hold the scrap of paper with her handwriting on it.

She refers to the "key hanger" we sent as a gift, which I found fascinating. It was actually a hand-carved Myrtlewood tree with a prism in the center, and was hanging on a wire. When I send little things to her I always wonder which might be favored over others. You never can be sure. You can never be sure that all gifts ultimately reach their destinations, or that all thank you notes find their way back to sponsors. Case in point, I sent two scarves similar to the one she's wearing in this latest photo that were never acknowledged. This might actually be one of them. Because she is a young Muslim girl my gifts have required different thinking than ones we send to our little guy in Ecuador. I'd love to shower her with her heart's desire, and I have a feeling that would mean some very simple things. You'll note that she mentions wishing she had a camera, and I'm going to follow up with our sponsor agent to see if there is photo processing near the village where Huwaida lives. Also note that she speaks about how green her village is now, leading me to speculate that the photos here (received three months ago) were taken before the rainy season came. It's wonderful that she has some seasonal greenery to enjoy.



This is beautiful Huwaida some months before her 17th birthday with her handsome brother. Aren't they marvelous?









































I was interested in the Islamic greeting at the top of the translated letter, especially since it was not translated. My curiosity was set into motion and I found the information below in a forum on introductory information about Islam. I changed one phrase into red lettering to indicate that it is the closest I was able to come to a translation.

One of the main reasons I selected Plan-USA five years ago is because it is child-and community-centered, not religion-based. I have no desire to push Christianity or any other religion on any part of the world which has its own beliefs. How could any evangelist instill one ounce more dignity and grace into these two children? It's not their souls that need help.

By keeping a Live and Let Live attitude we are blessed to be a blessing in some small way for Huwaida and her family. Her village has benefited from training for children on health issues and the promotion of registration and issuance of birth certificates for children. A bridge was constructed over the canal that runs through Huwaida's village. Children no longer have to take a seven kilometers detour around the uncrossable canal to reach their school during rainy season. And I'm so pleased that information for the regular updates on Huwaida and her family are collected by Huwaida herself as a "community volunteer." She's a bright spot in this world and in my life, most definitely.

The importance of saying "Assalaamu 'alaykum" and returning the greeting

All people have the custom of greeting one another, and every group has its own distinctive greeting that distinguishes them from other people. . . .

. . . When Islam came, Allaah prescribed that the manner of greeting among Muslims should be “Assalaamu alaykum” [not salam or salams or whatever] and that this greeting should only be used among Muslims and not for other nations. The meaning of salaam (literally, peace) is harmlessness, safety and protection from evil and from faults. The name al-Salaam is a Name of Allaah, may He be exalted, so the meaning of the greeting of salaam which is required among Muslims is, “May the blessing of His Name descend upon you.” The usage of the preposition ‘ala in ‘alaykum (upon you) indicates that the greeting is inclusive. . . .

. . . The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) also explained the reward earned by the one who says salaam, as was reported by al-Nisaa’i in ‘Aml al-yawm wa’l-laylah (368) and al-Bukhaari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (586) and by Ibn Hibban (493). They reported from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that a man passed by the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) whilst he was sitting with some others, and said “Salaam ‘alaykum (peace be upon you).” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “[He will have] ten hasanaat (rewards).” Another man passed by and said “Salaam ‘alaykum wa rahmat-Allaah (peace be upon you and the mercy of Allaah).” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “[He will have] twenty hasanaat.” Another man passed by and said “Salaam ‘alaykum wa rahmat-Allaahi wa barakaatuhu (peace be upon you and the mercy of Allaah and His blessings).” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “[He will have] thirty hasanaat.” . . .


. . .It is clear that it is obligatory to say salaam and return salaams, because by doing so a Muslim is giving you safety and you have to give him safety in return. It is as if he is saying to you, “I am giving you safety and security,” so you have to give him the same, so that he does not get suspicious or think that the one to whom he has given salaam is betraying him or ignoring him. . . .
- Iman Way Forums

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Wellington

This photo is the first we received after beginning sponsorship in fall 2003. The picture had been cropped to show only two-year-old Wellington and it was this b&w photo that I saw on the Plan USA website when I searched for a child to sponsor. Love at first sight doesn't come close to what I felt when I saw his face and that hair!















The uncropped version pictures Wellington and his young mother, Janeth, who is my contact for the family. Janeth seems like a daughter to me and I'm so proud of how she has blossomed as a community volunteer for Plan in the past few years. I've written to her many times that she is an artist and have praised her whimsical hand-crafted greeting cards splashed with color and glitter. She writes with flair and her thoughts are well organized (the letters are translated but we always receive her original composition). I also compliment her on being such a good mother to Wellington and Lady, Wellington's older sister. Janeth proudly thanks me for saying these things. Truth is, she's a rock. Her husband, Jonny, works as a construction worker in a larger city away from their village and she doesn't seem to miss a beat attending to everything in his absence.

The second photo is our latest from them, displaying beautiful maturing and exciting growth.

Their small home is made of concrete blocks with a corrugated asbestos roof, and it is loaned rent free. When our sponsorship began the family didn't have their own latrine and they used an open field or public area for their needs. Since then they have been given a private latrine, evidence of improved conditions.

Both Wellington and Lady attend primary school and are sports-oriented. Religion is a key factor in this family's life and Janeth was eager to write me about Lady's upcoming confirmation last year. There's a monastery four miles from our home and I asked for assistance at the gift shop for a sweet simple remembrance for Lady. We always send her a Christmas gift along with Wellington's. Being one who is extremely concerned about overpopulation, I find it refreshing that (so far, anyway) this family remains small. The other two children we've sponsored were from large families, making it unfeasible for me to shop for all of children for their special holidays.

The names of the children fascinated me and I wrote to Janeth asking how they came up with Lady and Wellington. My question was lost in translation and Janeth responded that she and Jonny named their children. Oh well. It was to remain a mystery until this week when Honour commented after my last post with this tidbit: "Look forward to hearing about Wellington (I love the names they pick in that area of the world, when I worked in Peru - I came across beautiful baby boys named Edson and Carrington ..."

My file for Wellington is inches thick and I'll start a second one soon. Unless Jonny and Janeth move their family to a community outside of Plan's coverage we will be a part of their lives for years to come. Because of that we do hope that we will someday be able to visit. The organization works to arrange field visits for sponsors and has a strict policy in place that stipulates:

All visits must be arranged through our office at Plan USA. Preparing your visit requires careful planning by Plan staff both here in the US and in the field office. For the protection of the children in our programs, we require all visitors (18 years and older) who are visiting the field to read and sign our Child Protection Standards and to undergo a background check.

I loved this written piece by a Plan USA sponsor after her visit to Indonesia to visit her sponsored child. In addition to this story the website includes five other moving stories written by sponsors about their field visits. Yes, it would be the trip of a lifetime to meet Wellington and his family but even if that never happens we have mini-vacations each time a letter from Janeth arrives and simply opening Wellington's file is a tour of the heart.

On Sponsoring a Child in Need

It's been heartening to read comments left after my posts about Huwaida and the Yasuni rainforest. I certainly wasn't alone in thinking about sponsoring a child in another country, thinking about it so much I yearned to do it, while deferring the decision. There are so many worthy causes and organizations working on behalf of them. It can get dizzying deciding where to send contribution dollars, and there was a time when I donated from my credit cards which really got out of control. About 15 years ago I was in counseling for a short time and got a great "tune-up" from an astute therapist. Debt was only one of my issues, but he weighed it more heavily than I did at the time. In our last session he offered advice for the first time in our counseling relationship, a kind of parting checklist that included pay yourself first. Oooh, how hard that sounded to me but I nodded in agreement. Funny how his words stuck, however. Live and learn.

The monthly donations to the two children we sponsor through Plan USA are budgeted and debited directly from Mike's paycheck. I have gone beyond the $10-twice-a-year limit on gifts at times, but not to excess and actually the gift shop at the organization's website includes gifts that exceed their limit by a bit anyway. What I'm saying is that it's workable for us to do the sponsorships and support our favorite environmental groups, without going into debt as I had in my past. Mike refers to it as "being blessed to be a blessing." If others find they are in a similar position it might add the charm and joy to your lives that it has to mine to become a part of a sponsorship program.

My new friend Francessa in Austria commented that she has sponsored eight children since 1983 through another organization. I wish I'd had that many years of letters, and drawings, and love you can feel just by thinking of the families who have this special tie to your life!

I began this post with the intention of making it the piece about our little guy, Wellington, in Ecuador. Next post will be about him for sure. In the meantime, if you are looking for a quirky movie for the weekend there is one that features Plan USA in the plot. In the 2002 movie About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson's character finds solace in the midst of life-changing chaos from his sponsorship through Childreach, now known as Plan USA. The organization was, until recent years, known in the states as Childreach and they still own the name. They changed it to Plan USA to coordinate the name with the organization worldwide (personally, I still like the name Childreach better!).


photo: Vancouver Sun

Huwaida

Tonight I was thinking about the children we sponsor and how I must write letters to them tomorrow. We picked up some small gifts when we were in central Oregon recently and I've been remiss in sending them. Until late last year we sponsored three kids: Wellington, a boy in Ecuador; Seuli, a girl in Bangladesh; and Huwaida, a girl in Sudan. Wellington is our longest sponsorship, and I'll write about him in another post. Seuli, quite to our disappointment, married last year at age 15. It was a shock to get notification from the agency, because with this change in her life all communication ceased. I think of her so often and hope she somehow senses our caring.

Huwaida came into our lives in January 2007. I was visiting the agency website after receiving a special mail appeal to consider sponsoring an older child who otherwise would "age out" of the program before ever having known that someone cared about him/her and their village as a whole. It's heartbreaking to see these faces of kids 15 and older waiting on the lists. They know fully well that their pictures were taken for potential sponsors to view, and they wait. When I searched for an older child in the database I specifically targeted Sudan, and when I saw Huwaida's picture and short bio I knew she was the one.

She is now 17 and I'm feeling the pinch of guilt that I haven't written to her nearly as much as I wrote to Seuli (actually, the translated communication we had was with Seuli's father). I'm not sure how the agency ceases the sponsorship once a child reaches the maximum age; my guess is that age 18 is the cut-off. Since mail takes about four months one way this means that I really need to ramp up my letters and cards to Huwaida. She has been so gracious in her (translated) letters to us, genuinely indicating her pleasure about a small gift or a colorful card. She herself has responded to the agency's interviews about her life and her family's living condition, which has given field reports a personal touch. Huwaida is a very fine young woman and I think very strong.

Her community is near Darfur where conditions are so dire. Actually living conditions in her family and village far exceed poor Seuli's in Bangladesh. Seuli's toilet was a field outside their hut. Huwaida's family uses a private latrine for their toilet facilities, and the family's water comes from a borehole with a hand pump that is situated about 1/2 mile from their home. Huwaida's family lives in a house made of unfired mud bricks with a corrugated metal roof. Her father is a market seller. She has four younger brothers and a sister who just married.

Huwaida attends what is called primary school. Her drawings are lovely. In my imaginings for her I see a spark ignited that will make her want more for her life than the inevitable. I imagine conditions happening in a perfect synchronicity that would give us the financial ability to bring her to the U.S. to complete her education. She exhibits innate leadership qualities that could take her far and then take her home to be of service to her people. She could change the role of women in Sudan, she could be the catalyst that would cause the world to demand an end to female circumcision on that continent, she could defer marriage until she was ready and then they would plan their family . . .

But these are dreams and the reality is that, even with the fine work the agency is doing to better the conditions of her village, Huwaida's security can be dashed with one year of drought, or a sudden coup d’état that pits one tribe or village against another, or by rape. I hope and pray that she won't endure these horrors. I also hope she won't become embittered by what she must endure in her young life. And I hope my next small package takes less than four months to arrive in Sudan, where I hope it makes Huwaida smile.

***

I selected Plan USA for our children sponsorship agency after researching them and similar agencies. I chose Plan USA because it is not affiliated with any church or religion, and its mission isn't about spreading any doctrine. In fact, Wellington is Christian, Huwaida is Muslim, and Seuli is Hindu. A comment from the website:

Plan is a global partnership of caring people founded in 1937 to bring hope and help to the world’s poorest children.

Plan began as a child sponsorship organization. Today, we are one of the oldest and largest organizations of our kind—our grassroots, self-help programs assist more than 10 million children and their families in poor communities around the world.
We are proudly private, not for profit, and respectful of local religions and cultures—we have no agenda other than helping kids. Plan USA is one of more than 60 countries bearing the renowned Plan logo.

Your donations to help children through Plan USA are tax deductible and greatly appreciated.

Abby's Story

The sunset over the coast range tonight is so beautiful. I imagine it is wonderful over at the beach this evening. It reminded me of our first beach trip after we adopted Abby last September. She's a wonderful Old English Sheepdog, the second one we've been lucky to have in our family. We lost Woofles last May and we still miss him. (I posted a picture of Woofles with our Standard Poodle, Bonbon, on March 13, 2008.) The picture above was snapped from our tripod at the end of the day of that first beach trip with Abby. We've been so busy lately that we haven't been back, and intend to go in two weeks. Abby and Bonbon will be thrilled. Since my blog didn't exist yet last holiday season I am going to post "Abby's" Christmas letter here now, as it tells her story. (Well, ok, I helped her some . . . oh alright, a lot!).

December 2007

Happy Holiday Greetings to you!

I have been elected by my new family to tell you about what happened with us this year.

My name is Abby and I’m a beautiful and gentle Old English Sheepdog, age seven, who has settled into her third – and final – home after traveling from California to Texas in the summer, and then to Oregon in September. It’s true that my new Daddy and Mommy have had an interesting year. So has Bonbon, my new pal, their six-year old Standard Poodle. I guess all these cats have had a fine year as well, but the only one to have swapped stories with me is the new kitten, Shiva. She feels as fortunate as I do to have found this family full of love, but she is a darling little lovebug and who could have resisted her? I, on the other hand, experienced a great shock this year when I was returned by my owner in California to the Texas Old English Sheepdog Rescue foster home where I had landed two years ago after having been rejected by my original family in Oklahoma. So I think my story is the best in my family for its pathos, bravery, excitement, redemption, renewal, and love.

I lived in style for four years in Oklahoma, where I was born. My original owner was a successful contractor and he and his wife gave me a grand house and property. In return I accompanied her to puppy training classes and we won a gold star on our certificate for best obedience. My new mommy and daddy have my complete file with the certificate in it.

Anyway, I considered my life to be secure with those folks in Oklahoma after four years together until some terrible storm named Katrina struck a portion of this country and my owner went down to Mississippi to place bids on cleaning up afterward. While he was gone his wife, my obedience buddy, left me at the humane society near our home. Well, I wasn’t the average inmate and someone at the shelter was kind enough to contact the Old English Sheepdog rescue group in Oklahoma on my behalf. They were busy helping all kinds of animals who were lost in the storm so a call for assistance was placed to the rescue group in Texas, and I stayed with the nice foster dad there until my second owner adopted me. We lived in Texas for awhile, then he got married and we all moved to California. It was a good life and I was well cared for. But some country named Japan had a new job for my owner and they couldn’t take me, so the three of us drove back to Texas to that nice foster dad and the next thing I knew my bed, bowls, leash, and toy were put in his house and I stayed with my things.

In the meantime my new daddy and mommy had an Old English Sheepdog named Woofles, who got very sick and blind and they cried when they lost him in May. They showed me his picture and he was great looking with his pure white head. They must have missed him very much because they said that life just wasn’t the same without an Old English Sheepdog in their house! They began to look for a grown-up OES and completed applications in several states. Well, my foster dad in Texas thought we would all make one another happy and he called them to say that I could be their dog if they could transport me from his house to their Oregon home. My rescue organization absolutely will not fly dogs. He told my new folks about a company in Texas that takes pets door-to-door in a van. And that’s how I got here! Along the way we picked up and delivered pets, and we drove right past my former California town – I could smell that I was near and I was rather confused for a bit.

I am all settled in now and am loved beyond measure. My new neighbors and veterinarians think I am great and I smile for everyone. I wash Bonbon’s face and I cuddle my cats. We have a Christmas tree and soon I will add to my growing collection of toys that I nuzzle and treasure.

One of my favorite things to do is to be very still and study my mommy and daddy to intensify my learning curve about this new home. I have very dark, very wise eyes that help me to stare deeply at them. When they become aware that I’m doing this we share special moments of soulful reassurance that I am truly home and that all is well.

They took Bonbon and me to the Oregon coast once since I came here and I had a wonderful time. We are going to go there and stay all night sometime soon. Daddy took a trip to the beach in a private plane this year. A friend from work was the pilot, and, WOW, they flew right over a whale jumping out of the ocean! Mommy had a four-day quick road trip in to Reno in June. She stayed with a childhood friend who was having a surprise 80^th birthday party for her mother. Mommy loved being a part of the surprise, and she had a wonderful visit in her hometown.

A marriage happened in our “family” recently. The girl in Bangladesh, named Seuli, sponsored by my mommy and daddy since 2003, got married and moved away from her childhood village. She is only 15 and this news was a disappointment for us. I’m going to send my picture to the kids we still sponsor: Wellington, our boy in Ecuador, who is now 6, and Huwaida, our girl in Sudan, soon to turn 16.u

Daddy has joined a professional organization for accountants and will be more involved in a leadership capacity in 2008. Mommy took a fiddle workshop in the summer, got her own violin afterward, and will begin violin lessons in 2008. They are busy and happy.

We all wish you good cheer and a great new year.

Love,

Abby