I remember reading from Dr. Weil -one of his injunctions re his integrative
approach to medicine. He said that we should sometimes take a FAST from the daily
news. Very wise counsel in my opinion- especially today. So much of it is heart breaking
and depressive. We can't seem to get out of the hole we have dug ourselves into. I like
to play the name-blame game as do so many of us, but sadly there seems to be enough
blame to go around. Even though Pres. Obama has fallen from my good graces, I blame
him the least. I believe that he took the reigns of office in the worst possible time and
I sincerely believe he tried to "fix" things. I would never in a million years have
wanted to be president when he had to face the collapse of Wall Street, the banks, the
auto industry, and the housing market. However, some of his recent policies re animals
and the environment has caused me to be disappointed in him. Nuff said - this is not
suppose to be a political blog.
Hopefully, your spirits will be bouyed as mine were with the reading of these inpirational
accounts. The first you may have already read. It is the story of a nine-year old - a very
special nine year old. Nicholas Kritoff wrote about her this past week in the NY Times.
He notes that so many of us have become cynical, but he says his faith in humanity
has been restored with the story of Rachel Beckwith, a 9-year old from Seattle. He said
we could all learn a lot from her about maturity and unselfishness. I agree with him
after reading her inspirational story.
I think she must have had an exceptional mother as well as teachers to have become
so sensitive to the needs of others. Would that our politicians one day imbibe her
spirit! Imagine that at 5 she learned at school that there was an organization called
Locks of Love which seeks hair donations to make wigs for children who have lost
their own hair to cancer or other diseases. So, this little precocious 5 year- old asked
her mother to donate her long locks to this cause. No vanity in this child. She told
her mother that she would let her hair grow again for this cause and she did.
When 8 years old, she found out that her church was raising money to build wells
in Africa through an organization called Charity:Water. She was horrified that
children in some countries had no clean water. So she decided for her ninth birthday
she could help by asking family and friends to donate $9 for this cause in lieu of
presents. Her target of $300 fell short and she was only able to raise $220. Yes,
she was a bit disppointed.
While this little crusader would not be able to do more for these thirsty children in life,
she would accomplish her goal in death. On July 20 the family car collided with two
trucks on the highway. Rachel was the only one who was critically injured.
Church members and friends were inspired to show their love and support for her and
began donating on Rachel's birthday page - charitywater.org/Rachel and donations began
to pour in. Family and friends who visited her in the hospital were able to tell her that
she had exceeded the $47,544 that Justin Bieber had raised for charity:water on his
17th birthday.
Sadly no one knows for sure whether she heard this good news or not. When it was
clear that she would never regain consciousness, the family removed her from life
support. Her parents donated her hair for the last time to Locks of Love and her
organs were harvested to help other children. You are an inspiration, Rachel, to me
and anyone who has read your story.
BELLA - a brave little dog. Not only did this little dog protect his own home, but when
his neighbors had caught intruders trying to enter their home, Bella attacked them in
their garden. This caused them to make a hurried exit, but not before one of them
stabbed Bella in the right side of her head. The knife was poking out between her
eyes. This six-year-old family pet began running around in the street with this massive
knife stuck in her head.
Her owner, Vernon Swart of South Africa, feared the worse when he saw Bella with this
knife sticking out of her head. Rushed to a vet - the vet couldn't believe what he was
seeing. He had no idea how Bella survived this cruel assault.
Bella was anesthetized and the knife was removed. The vet said the knife was so far
imbedded into her skull that he had to put his knees up against Bella's head and lever
it with his arms. He also noted that the size of the knife was absolutely shocking and
that it must have missed her brain by fractions of a centimeter. Otherwise, she would
have been dead.
Well today Bella is recovering at home after her ordeal. She's been lying beside the
fire and the Swarts have been treating her with all sorts of nice food. Mr. Swart
believes that she is absolutely fine and thinks Bella is wondering what's all the fuss
about. He also said that if the police find the guys, that they would like a favor-
that Bella be put alone with them in a room for a few minutes so that Bella can get
her revenge. I laughed when I read this, but I don't think it's a good idea. I believe
that dogs don't harbor grudges as do we. We could learn from them.
YVONNE, a runaway Austrian cow. This one smart cow has been happily wandering
the woods in Bavaria and evading capture since May. She escaped from a farm where
she was being "fattened up for slaughter." Both the authorities and an animal rescue
group have tried in vain to capture her. The rescue group have even bought her for
$988. I hope that it is they who capture her because she deserves to live a care-free
life, as do they all in my opinion.
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