Malala's Light

When the news first broke a year ago that 14-year old Malala Yousafzai had been shot in the head by the Taliban while sitting in a school bus all I could imagine was the extreme fear and chaos of that terrifying moment.

How could someone be so afraid of a child on her way to school?

Just by going to school, Malala defied the Taliban and its oppressive measures directed towards women by supporting education for girls in her small village in Pakistan's Swat Valley.  That simple act made her a target.  Given the extreme nature of her injuries last October, I hoped she would somehow survive her attack.  I read all of the stories about her being transported to a hospital in London for treatment and how her family followed her to Great Britain to watch over her.

Malala has more than survived.  She is now providing the light of leadership and inspiration to people around the world who may feel there is no hope and feel lost because they think it doesn't matter what they do.  They think that one person cannot make a difference.  She is proof that one person, no matter what their age, can have tenacity of spirit to follow their passions and despite the odds, affect change.



Malala Yousafzai & President Obama Meet at the White House
Photo Courtesy of the White House

Malala is the essence of courage.  Her honesty and steadfast truth telling is shining a light in some of the darkest and most forgotten places on Earth.  She was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and came to the United States to meet with President Obama and speak at the World Bank.

Unfortunately, she didn't win the Nobel Peace Peace but instead she has won the love of millions of people who have never met her.  I don't know where Malala Yousafzai has found the courage and sheer guts at such a young age to speak out and fight for her right to go to school and be educated but she is one fierce young woman.

And fierce we all must be as we battle the stresses and burdens that life presents to us.

Let's forge ahead and work for positive change in our lives too.  Whether it's processing the loss of a loved one or dealing with challenges of a different sort in our lives, please read this short story from Marie Claire magazine featuring Malala's most inspirational quotes and may the light of her determination energize you:

http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/inspirational-women/malala-yousafzai-inspirational-quotes?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1449_26631286

What Are You Thinking?

Following-up to yesterday's post about writing as a way to process your thoughts and emotions, I just wanted to add a few quick thoughts.

 

We want and need to connect to each other because we are human.  Reaching out to one another, expressing our thoughts and emotions is essential.

Otherwise, we are isolated and afraid; cut off from human interaction and we don't allow ourselves to have the opportunity to grow or change.  We are just lost in our own thoughts as though we are watching the same video on a loop tape.  Over and over again.  Stuck.

At a certain point in my grief journey, I felt stuck.  I was sick of my grief feelings.  I was tired of feeling the pain.  I was tired of my whole outlook on life.  I wanted life to be the way that it used to be, even when my husband was sick.  At least he was still with me and we could talk to each other.

But I knew life wasn't going to go backwards for me so I had to find a way to get myself in gear and go forward.  I also knew that if I felt this way, then others must feel the same way too.  I know I am not alone in my feelings and by writing about what helps me, I hope I am helping others who are dealing with a loss.

Writing or journaling is one way to express your innermost thoughts and process all the complex emotions you are feeling.  I will be honest with you: it is hard to examine your thoughts.  Sometimes they are not pretty.  You are examining why you feel the way you do and that helps you get to know what gives meaning to your life.

Lots of people keep diaries and journals to record their thoughts and to stay in touch with what is happening to them.  Even presidents keep diaries.

I was pleasantly surprised to read in a recent Time magazine article that President Obama routinely scribbles down his thoughts and uses writing as a way to chart his way forward and cope with the stresses of his all-consuming 24/7 mega-stressful job.

"In my life, writing has been an important exercise to clarify what I believe, what I see, what I care about, what my deepest values are," Obama said in the Time magazine interview.  "The process of converting a jumble of thoughts into coherent sentences makes you ask tougher questions."
 

Election Day Is Finally Here

Courtesy of Huffington Post

After all the speeches, debates, television and newspaper ads, phone banks, door-to-door campaigning and robocalls, Election Day has finally arrived.

Please vote today!  Every vote does count! 

If you already exercised your right to vote by going to the polls early or by using an absentee ballot, sit back and enjoy some quirky voting quotes that I saw in a recent Huffington Post story:

"Half of American people have read a newspaper.  Half never voted for President.  One hopes it is the same half."  ~ Gore Vidal

"Bad officials are lected by good citizens who do not vote." ~ George Jean Nathan

"The best argument against democracy us a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
  ~ Winston Churchill

"In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state.  When we are ill...we do not ask for the handsomest physician or the most eloquent one."
  ~ Plato

"Thinking is not to agree or disagree.  That's voting." ~ Robert Frost

"Anti-intellectulism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " ~ Isaac Asimov

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." ~ John Quincy Adams

"In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote." ~ David Foster Wallace

Courtesy of New York Daily News