Editor of How to Achieve Heaven on Earth: 101 insightful essays from the world's greatest thinkers, leaders and writers
A perfect gift for Mother's Day could be the exciting, optimistic and ambitious book, How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth. It contains essays of hope and promise, something that mothers embody as they introduce new life into our world.
Women today, especially in the United States, are accomplishing more and more in field after field of human endeavor. They can be the leaders in recognizing the ambitious and awesome possibilities in such a gift.
I believe ten elements will be included in a heaven on earth: peace, security, freedom, democracies, prosperity, spiritual harmony, racial harmony, ecological harmony and health as well as moral purpose and meaning. Each of these categories in the book is supported by essays as well as one more category, Individual Paths to Heaven on Earth. Women will be an integral part of this hopeful process with a book that outlines the goals, obstacles, means and faith to attain that ultimate destiny.
Contributors to the book include Presidents Obama and Bush, Vice President Al Gore, Tony Blair and a host of notables and ordinary people who have extraordinary things to say.
Let me give you some specifics from two of the 101 essays from the world's greatest thinkers, leaders and writers that will show you how mothers will be thrilled to read and devour this book.
A heart-rending essay is "Many Mothers" by Maida Rogerson, a wonderful person whom I have met who wrote about a Santa Fe charity. It starts with this: "Imagine. You've just had your first baby. Your husband is in a new job and doesn't have a lot of time for you. You've moved away from your extended family. Suddenly, there you are, you and your beautiful baby, home, alone. Your baby starts to cry, and you're dead tired and all you want to do is cry yourself, and you have no one to turn to."
That's where Many Mothers comes in with " . . . volunteers of grandmothers, aunts, businesswomen and often other mothers." . . . "Knowing that bonding and attachment in infancy are necessary to create healthy adults," the charity acts by nurturing the mother. The chores are broad -- cleaning and other mundane tasks may be part of the volunteer's normal duties. The joy of helping mothers goes in all directions just as you would expect in a heaven on earth.
In "Women Who Never Give Up," Sharon L. Davie visits a women's cooperative in Kenya. She explains that such groups " . . . come together with serious purpose . . . and number in the tens of thousands, with millions of individual women involved." This is not a new phenomenon, but has existed throughout Kenya's history in one form or another.
In their society " . . . most women cannot inherit or buy land, so they bought their house as a collective." Gradually they bought " . . . a cow -- which led to shared milk, calves, then chickens and eggs, and finally a mill to grind their maize and millet."
When asked if men could have such a cooperative, "The whole group [women in the cooperative] laughed uproariously. They thought that was a ridiculous idea. 'They would drink up all the money!' they said."
Asked about violence, " . . . they told of the woman in the next village who was being brutally beaten by her husband, over and over. She ran away -- not something that women do, they said. Men can beat women and they must stay." Eventually, the group helped the woman and even assisted her in building a house.
Women will no doubt assume greater and greater roles throughout the world as their unique talents go beyond the survival stage such as some in Kenya, on the striving stage which is being demonstrated day by day, to the thriving stage, which will be part of the path toward a heaven on earth.
Happy Mother's Day
Copyright © 2010 John E. Wade II, editor of How to Achieve Heaven on Earth: 101 insightful essays from the world's greatest thinkers, leaders and writers
Author Bio
John E. Wade II, editor of How to Achieve Heaven on Earth: 101 insightful essays from the world's greatest thinkers, leaders and writers, is an author, investor, philanthropist, and founder of the nonprofit organization Soldiers of Love. An active member of his church and civic organizations in his area, Wade holds an M.A. from the University of Georgia and has worked in a range of fields. His extensive travels, including visits to China, India, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Brazil, inspired him to collect the essays in this work. Wade lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
For more information, please visit www.HeavenOnEarth.org.
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1 comments:
Well done is better than extravagantly said.
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