I’ve met so many exceptional human beings in my time here on earth, and in my storytelling here, I’ve introduced you to many who have enriched my life in years past. But I never ever dreamed one of those exceptional people I’d want to write about would carry the title “CEO”. (Goes to show: never say never, huh?)
You all know of her, she paddles around in this pond right beside us: NancyL. I have not asked her permission to write this either: I know better. But she is one of the people in my present life that has done SO much to revive my ability to continue hoping for a better future for all out children and thus, our world.
She has shared here that she heads up a human service agency that serves inner city kids many others have given up on so I feel ok sharing that now. Quietly, without much fanfare at all, she has steered this small agency of dedicated, brilliant humanitarians for years now, to save our kids: the ones that needed it the most. (I don’t know how to link, would someone link the You Tube video she offered in the RHL Peace On Earth Diary?) Look closely at the faces of those children. There, folks, is the hope for us all.
Unless a person has actually worked in the human services field, it is very hard to understand the overwhelming and endless challenges faced, in a culture whose values, overall, do NOT lay with helping and nurturing our own most vulnerable: especially our children. To do this as long as NL has, takes a heart big enough to hold all of humanity within itself, and the kind of courage most of us can only imagine.
And the good news is she is not alone. There are so many “silent saviors” among us, SO many, who never ask for fame or fortune or applause. Who simply get up each morning and keep doing what is in essence, the highest calling there is: working so very hard, for the greater good of all.
Just because they don’t make the news does NOT mean they do not exist, and it does NOT mean that what they do is ANY less powerful a force in this world that all that is so dark and painful that we DO see every day on the mass media,just because it “sells better.”
Nancy will never know how often, when what I see happening weighs on my chest so heavily it’s hard to draw a breath, that I think of her, and what she is doing and how that helps me keep my hope alive. Who knows which of those so called “hopeless” kids she and her people work so hard to save might just be another Martin Luther King? Who knows how many will grow up able to extend a strong hand up to others with tough beginnings like theirs?
In our grief, in our despair and outrage over what has happened to our beloved country, we must never forget the other “front lines” right here at home, or the vast armies of people like Nancy, serving 24/7/365,without leave, or much reinforcement at all, who are generating every bit, and I believe even more “power” than all the negative forces at play now.
And when all is said and done, when all the illusionary “power structures” collapse, it will the Nancys of this world who, with their armies of like others, will step up to lead the rest of us down the better, freer pathways: the silent leaders among us who are made of the right stuff, who do have hearts strong and big enough to encompass the whole world.
So how I can ever totally despair, when I have been blessed to have broken bread with a friend like this, who in the midst of her own discouragements over where we are, just keeps getting up every single morning to give of all her skills and talents and heart and all of who she is, to what she does so well?
It is high time we begin to recognize and honor those the truest and most powerful leaders among us, instead of turning our eyes only to that corrupt mess in DC. Look among the quietest ones for the gold: those who choose work that empowers and strengthens and teaches and heals other human beings, over accumulating great wealth or recognition for themselves. There are so many of you right here at Boo.
This salute goes out to each and everyone here, and out there too. Let’s let them all know we see them,we know who they are and that we are so grateful to each and ever one. Lets watch their backs and lend them a place to lean awhile when they need one, and ask how we can help them on the ground.
We must remember, and believe in, the power of all the GOOD that is also happening here, way under the radar, day in and day out and what a true and powerful world force it is. Feed and fan THOSE fires, rather than feed the flames of destruction with more hate and desire for retribution.
Sorry, Nanc, I know this diary will probably make you squirm and maybe you’ll even get mad at me, but no way could I pass up the chance you have given me to write of reasons to keep hoping, by showing up in my life,as an living example of what a true leader is. I thank you and I salute you, and all who, by living out their commitment to a common good every single day, give us all reason to hope and believe in the power of authentically good and powerful leaders.
