I love this blog…

Today as I was sitting for endless hours (2) gazing into the abyss we, muggles, call Barnes and Noble, I came across some unknown territory. Now I have spent several afternoons in the Children’s section reading Max Lucado and C.S. Lewis books and many late nights absorbing auto biographies, but the material I came across tonight was profound. (Okay so now I am really ridiculous and this has a lot of build up but really no major follow through.) Today I picked up a magazine called Ode. Now a little known fact about me was I used to love to write Ode’s. I am a complete nerd and for a significant time in my college career I wrote Ode’s to everything; brilliant professors, the changing leaves, spring, running, friends. So instantly when I saw this magazine I had to read it. Now returning to my table my friends looked over my choice of magazines and mocked me as I had chosen, Fit over 40 (I thought it would be good information), Cigar Aficionado (I love a good cigar), Architecture’s Digest (always a good resource), Food & Wine (as my recent experience at Starbucks has me thinking about great wine pairing), and of course Ode “to passion, to people, to progress.” (The title of this blog is derived from one of the magazine’s articles).

I read some very interesting articles and the reason I am writing this blog is definitely not to submit some propaganda for the magazine but I was truly touched… wait touched is not a decent word to use in this context… I was emotionally stirred after reading this particular article. The article simply titled the Key to Courage was about so much more. The most beautiful woman (to me, not to Hollywood) hid 100 Tutsis from the militia during the genocide in 1994 in Rwanda. It started with her neighbor’s houses being turned into ashes by the militia and a little boy pleading with her to save his mother; slowly it grew to 67 then 100 people. She tells of how she would put cough syrup in their food to keep them from coughing so that the militia, who would spy through her walls, would not hear them. Also she recounts how she convinced the militia that she was a witch so they would not burn her house down or else she would cast spells on their families. This woman was born in 1915!!!! This was more than a story of courage but I cannot understand how a little woman can hide 100 people in her house for 67 days from these monsters. It had to be something bigger than her. I stand amazed.

Her life purpose I feel was served with crazy courage and amazing heart but what I love the most about her life purpose was that it was fulfilled at 79.