Thank you Nelson Mandela for making such a profound difference in our world. Our hearts are heavy because you’re gone, but we’re also dancing weightlessly, filled with gratitude because you were born.

Watching the news last night, tears streaming down my face – a wine glass in one hand, a tissue in the other – I marveled at the dizzying affect Nelson Mandela had on my life, simply because he represented, unequivocally, that anything is possible…and that one person can make a difference with enough courage and conviction.

No one person has ever inspired me more.

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they learn to hate they can be taught to love. Love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

 

“Hope is a powerful weapon, and [one] no one power on earth can deprive you of.”

 

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

 

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

 

“Let your greatness bloom.”

 

As we mourn the loss of Nelson Mandela, let us celebrate this extraordinary human being by trying to plant one seed of “individual greatness” in this world – whatever that may be – and “Let our greatness bloom.” Can you imagine how much brighter our world would look if we all added just one beautiful blossom in his honor?

Thank you, Madiba
R.I.P.

Nelson Mandela
1918-2013

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Here are several other posts I also wrote about my hero, Nelson Mandela: one on his recent 95th birthday (click on the link to view it) and another the previous, and also one I wrote chronicling the days leading up to his election as South Africa’s first black president (as recounted by my hubs, Jeffrey Aaronson, who was there photographing that historic event). Click HERE to feel what it was like to be on the frontline of history.