I hope this post finds you well, enjoying the holiday season with friends and family, warm and cozy.
Today, and this past week, I am thankful for HEAT. We’ve been having ridiculously cold weather for my area – All my outside water froze – Frozen solid! Here, this never happens. And above most things, I hate being cold. This past weekend, I read a book that really made me stop and pause, and think about just how lucky I am to be warm inside, with my family around me. How Lucky I AM – period. That book is A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal.
This morning I was outside doing some work in the back yard, filling up holes that had been dug by dogs…and it reminded me of the time I spent working as a merchandiser at Lowe’s in the garden department. I love gardens and plants. I love talking to people about gardening. So I thought this would be a great job for me – active, outdoors, and since I started in January it would be brisk and keep me moving. Yea, the day I started we had a cold snap and it froze. Unloading and moving wet heavy plants around when it’s freezing, not cool. This morning reminded me of that time and how miserable it was. But that’s nothing, LITERALLY NOTHING. Not even a drop in the bucket. I’ve got nothing on little Tommy Buergenthal – the child – yes, CHILD – that survived Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He survived the Auschwitz Death March. And when I say child I mean CHILD, he was liberated from Sachsenhausen at the age of 11.
This past week whenever outside dressed in many layers – long-sleeved t-shirt, heavy jeans, sweater, scarf, heavy coat, and still freezing – even just walking from the car to the grocery store – I have thought about Tommy. Who walked the Auschwitz Death March while starving, in what equated to nothing more than thin pajamas, boots too big and no socks, with rags wrapped around his feet.. And I think, could I have done it? This child who by what he describes as “luck” – his mother was told by a clairvoyant that he was “Ein Glückskind” – a Lucky Child. She knew that her son would make it through the war – never doubting it. Miraculously, he did make it, in that time relying solely on luck, the kindness of others, his own instincts and a desire to live – which was tested daily, with death all around – the story is amazing. A true testament to the human spirit. I read it in one day. And his story doesn’t stop with the liberation, it goes on to tell what he has done since and continues to do in his current life. Yes, Thomas Buergenthal is still alive, and has done, and continues to do phenomenal things for his fellow man, some of which include being a professor of International Law and Human Rights, and serving for more than a decade as the American judge on the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
So having read his story, a child faced with so much injustice, living in a place of horror and despair, and having done so much with the life he was given, I’ve been asking myself, what can I do? We do what we can with what we’ve got, and we’ve all been given so much in compairison…how can I reach my potential, and not squander my gifts, but use them to help others and show them their own gifts in turn? There are people all around us every day that can help us, elevate us, show us the direction to go, or stand up for us when we need the help. The connections are there, if we can see them, make them and maintain them, and when there’s nothing else, there’s always, by the grace of God, Luck.
I am shown this daily. Today of all days I am shown that faith and hope play a role – today our Traveling Psychic Supper Club project is moving forward, the project that started with one tiny idea and has grown due to the supporting cast of characters we’ve gained along the way – to include many people who believe in it and what it stands for – who see the diamond in the rough. People that trust, just the right people pushing it forward – who know where to take it and what to say.
The project that began with a voice mail on December 1st, 2012 that started, “Hello, I’m David Sauvage, I’m a director that…” – it’s taken a year, many steps along the way, more than a few edits, individuals come and gone, but all the while pushing the project forward…
And now, here we are. I have all the faith in the world in the people involved in this next step, my New York team. Today I am thankful for everything and everyone that has gotten us to exactly this point in time, My family, my Austin people, those in NY that found us in the first place, and everyone attached at that little company that starts with a W. And to everyone that has yet to connect, and seal the deal – I am thankful for you too. And I know whatever happens is perfect.
Now, in HOPE AND FAITH, LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN – LET’S DO THIS!
Seriously that little Mama killed it with the pendulum at the Seth Pope House.
If You Could See What I Hear... 