I've been remiss in reading any non-urgent-looking e-mail over the past few weeks of crazy holiday happenings and, in our household, my oldest daughter's New Year's Eve birthday celebration.
As I sifted through the Christmas greetings, hopes for a brighter New Year and, of course, last minute money requests, I found an incredible gem sent by the Iowa Women's Foundation.
"How lovely to think that no one
need to wait a moment,
we can start now,
start slowly changing the world!"
~Anne Frank
The photograph is circa 1943 by Gordon Parks. It is part of the collection at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Photography Center.
There are two things that really appeal to me about this message and photograph. First, I love the sentiment. It doesn't matter what we've done or haven't done over the past day, week, year or decade... we can start something new and real right now. As the saying goes, we are the ones we've been waiting for.
I'm not sure how many times as a young girl I sat out with bits of fresh bacon and string in search of crawdads by a creek. More often than not I had my good friend Barbara at my side. I imagine that once we returned home after sliding down the creek banks and stomping in the clear water that we looked a lot like the two girls in this photograph.
Maybe, now that I really think about it, there aren't two things like about this message, but the complete harmonizing of a single message: "Our past has shaped us, but has yet to define us."
As I sifted through the Christmas greetings, hopes for a brighter New Year and, of course, last minute money requests, I found an incredible gem sent by the Iowa Women's Foundation.
"How lovely to think that no one
need to wait a moment,
we can start now,
start slowly changing the world!"
~Anne Frank
The photograph is circa 1943 by Gordon Parks. It is part of the collection at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Photography Center.
There are two things that really appeal to me about this message and photograph. First, I love the sentiment. It doesn't matter what we've done or haven't done over the past day, week, year or decade... we can start something new and real right now. As the saying goes, we are the ones we've been waiting for.
I'm not sure how many times as a young girl I sat out with bits of fresh bacon and string in search of crawdads by a creek. More often than not I had my good friend Barbara at my side. I imagine that once we returned home after sliding down the creek banks and stomping in the clear water that we looked a lot like the two girls in this photograph.
Maybe, now that I really think about it, there aren't two things like about this message, but the complete harmonizing of a single message: "Our past has shaped us, but has yet to define us."
