Marianne Recently here in the city of Cleveland, we experienced a loss of a great advocate for the people.
Her name is Fannie Mae Lewis.
She sat on the city council for the city of Cleveland since 1980 representing one of the most infamous of Cleveland neighborhoods, Hough.
Cleveland, and the Hough Neighborhood attracted the attention of national media in the late 1960's due to the Hough Riots, which stemmed from racial discrimination- unfair deplorable housing conditions and poverty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hough_Riots
Mrs. Lewis was an advocate for the people. She was truly a spiritual warrior.
Her death and the story of her service to the people is an inspiration to me.
She was outspoken- tenacious- and determined. It has been said that she didn't take no for an answer- she walked in her truth, made sure she was informed and demanded that from others.
My thought for the day is inspired by her story.
Much of my own personal calling is about serving, I have been inspired by the lives of many such leaders; Dr Martin Luther Kind, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman to name a few.
Many people ask me ‘what is my life's purpose?".
To find our purpose requires us to serve.
It demands that we move our focus from ourselves to others.
It demands personal risk and investment.
It asks us to remove judgment and blame by embracing compassion and love.
Our robotically busy lives and our own problems prevent us from seeing the balance that serving provides.
It puts our own situations in perspective.
It reminds us to return to gratitude for the blessings that we take for granted.
It has us re-evaluating our existence, making changes that have us working smarter, not harder.
It removes the gluttony of materialism.
It waters the seeds of love and compassion within our hearts.
It removes the barriers of separateness.
Service shows us that there is no separation.
We are all one.
The testimony to a life is not a headstone or a monument; it is remembered by embracing the best parts of those who have gone before us and mirroring that in your own life.
To emulate those who inspire us in their greatness.
If each of us can ignite a fire within us from the spark of their blaze, we can't help but begin to change first our own lives and then the world.
Marianne Goldweber
