This morning, when I held my little one in my arms and my two big ones in my heart, I wondered what holding my healthy, vibrant children has to do with the atrocities happening around the world?
The children are off to school and the media is a-flurry with the “migrant crisis.” You know the one picturing dead Syrian children on the beaches of Europe?
My faith is stirred. “Oh God! It shouldn’t be like this!”
Writing about the first day of school and how to make the transition seems trite, when I want my children to be safe. All mothers want their children to be safe. There must be some meaning?
Look what’s happening in South Sudan (2.2 million) and in Syria (11 million)!
My heart throbs for the children. Children around the world who are so vulnerable.
This week my daughter returned from Haiti. She sat in the coffee shop and tears streamed down our faces as we considered: the disabled child who could walk and needs more help, the children who watched their friend die in the orphanage, the community without protection from the fierceness of Mother Nature. And that’s just her experience in a few days, in a small corner of the world.
Parents and Teachers, can you hear the mandate? It’s NOT an accident that the news and the start of school are creating a chorus for children!
We need to be changemakers. We need to become changemakers. We need to raise up changemakers.
School days represent letting go for the parent and becoming independent for the child. There are mixed emotions for both during the process. But, rather than perseverating on those emotions, let’s gather our strength, take a deep breath, and consider the greater good!
Do you know where it begins? On the playground. There is a disabled child in your child’s classroom. There is a lonely one. There is an anxious one. How can we teach children to reach out to each other?
We must teach them. It starts with sharing, using kind words, and trying to understand how someone else feels. Then, they have to learn to empathize. To be brave. To be vulnerable. We must teach them. Older students can get out of their classrooms. Discover what they care about. Become activists.
Yes, it is a grand expectation. Don’t we want that for our children?!
Do you know where it begins? At the dinner table. There is a difficult relationship or an important global issue. Join hands. Say a prayer. Send a blanket. Make a sacrifice. Give a gift.
There’s tons of information about how to get involved in this crisis!
Start by feeling indignant. See the horror. Don’t blink it away.
School days…days for learning how to become a changemaker…days for welcoming the stranger…days for ‘feeling’ with others.
For the sake of the children,
Karine