Doing Life Together

Santa and Me

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Linda Carlblom

Though I titled this post Santa and me, I’m not sure we’re actually in a relationship. Sorry.

Santa and I have had an on again, off again relationship most of my life. More off than on, really. I don’t have any ill feelings toward the jolly old elf, but I was never enamored with him like some kids are.

While growing up, my parents always taught us that Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and that’s why we celebrate. I never once felt like I missed out by not being fed the whole Santa Claus story. I still got gifts, but they were from people I loved like my parents, siblings, and grandparents. To me, that was more special than getting them from someone I didn’t know who dressed in a funny red suit. Besides, the wise men gave gifts to the Christ-child, (though experts say it may have been up to a few years later) so I’m okay with giving and receiving gifts at Christmas.

I never had to go through the trauma of learning that Santa wasn’t real. I’d never believed in him to begin with. It wasn’t that my parents bad-mouthed the guy or said we couldn’t believe in him. It just wasn’t our focus. He was just another decoration, like Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph. Jesus was the real deal and our attention was on Him.

As a child, I loved babies. I loved the Bible story of baby Moses being hidden in the reeds and guarded by his big sister, Miriam. My love of babies also extended to the baby Jesus figurine in our nativity set. He was so cute! I loved him before I understood the significance of who He was.

And maybe that’s the point. Decorations like the nativity scene silently point families to Jesus, the reason for our Christmas celebration. They cultivate something deep in a child (and adults!) that gives them hope. This hope isn’t just for Christmas morning like the kind Santa offers. It’s hope that lasts through all of life and its crazy ups and downs. It hands out love like the gift it is, wrapped in a swaddling cloth, lying in a manger.

Santa is jolly, Jesus is joy. Santa is temporary, Jesus is forever. Santa keeps a list of our wrongs, Jesus wiped them away on the cross. Santa rides in a reindeer-pulled sleigh, Jesus will one day return on a cloud, no vehicle required.

So Santa and me? I’m so over him. But Jesus and me? Yeah. We’re a forever thing.

Where do things stand between you and Santa? More importantly, where do things stand with you and Jesus?

Linda

Posted in Christmas, Gifts, Hope, Jesus, Santa, Uncategorized | Tagged believing in Santa, Christmas, gift giving, Jesus' birthday, Santa | 2 Comments

Nursing Home Christmas and Matilda by Betty Mason Arthurs

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Betty Mason Arthurs

Nursing Home Christmas and Matilda…by Betty Mason Arthurs

“Mrs. Arthurs, Matilda escaped during lunch, but she’s back safe and sound.” A nurse’s aide, Anne, breathlessly told me the latest escapade of one of our nursing home patients when I arrived for my evening shift. In spite of the newly installed cameras and buzzing alarms at each door, Matilda walked out into the bitter cold afternoon, wearing only her cotton dress, a thin sweater and black shoes.

I asked Anne, “How did we get her back?” However, I was thinking, “Is this the beginning of a wild Christmas season at Fairland Nursing Home? Will we be losing more confused patients as they search for their old homes and for the sons and daughters who no longer came for visits?”

All winter an icy wind blew over the Niagara Gorge and into our nursing home not far from Niagara Falls, in Lewiston, NY. In the 1970s I worked part-time. An RN and evening supervisor, my shift was from 3pm to 11pm while my husband cared for our toddler daughter and baby son.

Anne smiled. “A man who lives in the apartments ten blocks away found Matilda and brought her back. He said she reminded him of his grandmother.”

“I’m so glad she’s okay. I’m going to her room and check on her.” I waved good bye to Anne. The aides had already tucked Matilda into bed for a nap. I was grateful she had a normal blood pressure and she seemed unhurt. She asked me, “Is Sharon coming today?” How should I answer her when we all knew her daughter had died years ago?

Matilda was one of our favorite patients. In her 80s, she entertained us as she chattered nonstop about anything and nothing. In good physical shape, she prowled the halls all day, content to hug and greet strangers and each of the staff. We were her beloved family.

Patrick, our Irish gentleman, also roamed the halls and would sing us songs about Ireland and even dance a wobbly jig. A large man, he “smoked” a pipe and brightened our days as he told us tales of his childhood. We loved him too.

Nellie had suffered numerous strokes and each day we gently restrained her in a wheelchair to keep her posture upright and for her safety. She tried so hard to talk and we pretended to understand her. We parked her near the nurse’s station so she wouldn’t be alone.

Although her mind was bright and alert, Bess was one of our frail, bedridden patients. Each Sunday her grandson would gently pick her up in his arms, carry her out to his car and treat her to a ride around town. Even today, many years later, I tear up when I think of his selfless act of love for his grandmother.

All of our forty patients had interesting backgrounds and stories to tell. But the holidays were difficult. We worried that their families would not visit or bring them gifts or send a card.

Jim, a young father, we later learned, had found Matilda and taken her home to his small apartment, fixed her hot tea, enjoyed her chatter and loved seeing her with his wife and two small children. He told us, “She reminded me of my grandma. I had to help her.” Eventually he found where she belonged and brought her back to us. After that, he adopted Matilda, calling her “grandma” and came to visit her often.

In spite of all our efforts to keep the Christmas cheer going, it was a difficult season for most of our patients. But this Christmas Eve, thanks to Matilda’s crazy escape, our nursing home buzzed with excitement.

Jim, dressed in a Santa Claus suit with his wife as Mrs. Claus and his two children as elves, had special gifts for each resident. In spite of their limited income, Jim and his family had purchased sweet smelling talcum powder for each of our ladies and Old Spice aftershave for our gentlemen.

Shouting, “Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas,” Jim and his family paraded into each room, pulling wrapped packages out of his red cloth bag. They lovingly placed their gifts into the withered hands of each woman and man. Patients called back, “Merry Christmas.” Some said, “Thank you. God bless you!” They visited Matilda last and watched as she unwrapped her gift and in spite of her confusion, she hugged Jim and his family. “Thank you, Merry Christmas,” she said.

Like the wise men who followed a star to Bethlehem, Jim and his young family followed their hearts and with love and compassion gave gifts to the lonely folk who are often forgotten in a nursing home. I imagine Jim’s children never forgot the lesson they learned about the true meaning of Christmas. It’s in giving to others that we experience the birth of the Christ child. I know, it’s a meaningful lesson I’ve never forgotten thanks to Matilda’s escape…and a man with a huge, loving heart, Jim.

Posted in Aging, Christmas, Gifts, Grandparenting, Greatest love ever, loneliness on holidays, Love, nursing, Uncategorized | Tagged Christmas in a Nursing Home | 8 Comments

Starting a Christmas Conversation…by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Many years ago, I bought the book, The Christmas Conversation Piece: Creative Questions to Illuminate the Holidays by Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie. Their stated reason for writing the book was “to enhance all your Christmas conversations and draw you closer to friends and family through the use of creative and entertaining questions.” I purchased the book intending to use it as inspiration for hundreds of Christmas stories and articles. Now that twenty years have gone by, I’m ready to post my first work spawned by this book.

In the interest of opening up and sharing myself with my readers, I have selected nine questions from the book (and one of my own) to answer.

What is your favorite Christmas scent? Constant Comment tea.
If you were going to be Santa Claus for a Christmas Eve, what one amenity or convenience factor would you insist that your sleigh feature? A heater.
As a curious child, did you ever shake gifts under the tree to try and figure out what you were getting? Do you still shake (or subtly lift) packages before Christmas? I never did. I never wanted to spoil the surprise. One of my sons, however, routinely searched for presents and carefully unwrapped and rewrapped them.
What is the oldest ornament on your tree? We own a purple ball that was on the tree during my husband’s childhood. It’s more than sixty years old.
When you think of the holiday season in New York City, what particular scene or image do you picture first? The skating rink at Rockefeller Center. I remember going to the Christmas show there one year and watching the skaters outside.
If you were in charge of hiring a department store Santa, what quality or ability above all others would you look for in the applicants? A real white beard. As a kid, I found it hard to suspend disbelief around a Santa whose beard looked like it was made of cotton balls.
Were you ever in a Christmas pageant? If so, what part did you play? I attended parochial school, and we put on a pageant every year. My favorite, though, was my eighth grade year. Parts were determined by putting names in a hat, and my name was drawn for Mary. I was not a popular child, and getting to play Mary felt like a gift.
If you could go anywhere at all to reflect on the meaning of Christmas, where would you go? I’d go back in time to my home town in the late 50s and early 60s. A neighbor on the next block from our house, an artist, built a life-size nativity set on her property. Every year she added another figure. I remember when I was about four years old, my mother walked me down to visit it, and she told me the Christmas story. As I grew older, I would make the walk myself, eventually taking my little brother with me. It drew me to prayer.
If you could create the perfect hill for sledding, what would it look like? Be specific. When I was a kid, everyone went sledding on a hill on the private property of a family whose children went to my school. My husband, who grew up in the same town, knew it as Suicide Hill. I’m guessing it was maybe 300 feet tall at a grade of about 50 degrees. (In other words, tall and steep.) At the bottom of the hill was a chain link fence that just barely prevented you from shooting out into a very busy street. These were in the days before people worried about liability. I’m sure the present owners of the property would never allow strangers to sled down that hill.
What was the hardest Christmas you ever had to go through? We expected our second child early in January 1981, but I was really hoping for a Christmas delivery. Unfortunately, halfway through the pregnancy, I lost the baby. As the holiday season approached, all I could think about was what I’d lost. I had no energy to do things like decorate the house or bake cookies. To be able to create some kind of Christmas spirit for our little girl, I bought Christmas tapes and kept the music playing. We went on to have four more children, and one of them is a December baby. His birthday is today.

Now it’s your turn. Please choose one or more of the above questions and answer in the comments below.

Posted in Christmas, Family Stories, Holiday, Memoir, Remembering | Tagged Christmas, family stories, memoir, traditions | 10 Comments

What Does your Christmas Wreath Say about You? by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

I love looking at Christmas decorations. I think they reflect the people who put them up. Sometimes I wonder what those people are really like.

Many years ago, I bought a couple of horns at the craft store and dolled them up with ribbons and jingle bells and floral picks. I reasoned they would be perfect for a musician’s home.

Here are some Christmas wreaths I found on Pinterest recently. I’ve linked them back to their original articles. Sometimes directions are included–hey, there’s still time to make some these!

Santa Tulle Wreath

Hide and Seek Wreath

Yarn Wreath

Red and White Bow Wreath

Christmas Card Wreath

Candy Cane Wreath

Wood Slice Wreath

Cork Wreath

Christmas Ornament Wreath

Pinecone and Berry Wreath

Nightmare Before Christmas Wreath

Do you have a wreath displayed at your house? Why did you choose that particular wreath? Share with us in the comments.

Posted in Christmas, Doing Life Together, Holiday, traditions, Tutorials | Tagged Christmas, Christmas wreaths | 3 Comments

Christmas Under Cover…by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Much about the Christmas season inspires warmth. God’s love for us made tangible by the gift of his Son. Blazing fires in the hearth. Gatherings of family and friends. Cups of hot chocolate or spiced cider.

But there’s something especially warming about snuggling under a Christmas quilt. Traditional, yet timeless. Artful, yet practical. Here are a dozen lovely ones gleaned from Etsy.com. Some are bed-sized, and some are wall quilts. All were still available when I found them on Wednesday. Click on the caption above each picture for further details.

Red and White Beauty from stylinquiltdesigns.

Peppermint Kisses from stylinquiltdesigns.

Stars and Pinwheels from WillowRidgeQuilts.

Irregular Stars from LiveOakHome.

Merry Go Round from KandKKrafts.

Snowballs in My Garden from RedLetterQuilts.

Christmas Pinwheels from QTUWbyNancy.

Starry Christmas from DymphnaGoesQuilty.

Run Run Rudolph from Quiltinggrammy5.

Granny Square from Modquiltsandcompany.

Diagonal Ohio Star from SoosCreekQuilts.

Vintage Appliqué from WinterberryGifts.

Do you have any Christmas quilts at your house? Ones that you’ve made, or were given to you as gifts? Share in the comments.

Posted in Christmas, Quilting | Tagged Etsy | 4 Comments

Always Reason to Celebrate

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Carol Boley

December first–one of my favorite days of the year! The beginning of the most celebrated month. School programs, cookie exchanges, church festivities, baking, shopping, decorating…busy, busy, busy. It’s become such a big deal that whole books have been written on how to organize yourself, your family, your kitchen and your recipes so you don’t miss any of the fun. There is the slightest possibility that things have gotten out of control.

All while I enjoy some of this busy-ness, which can be fun and contribute to the pleasure of the season, the flurry of activity is not why I love December.

In all honesty, some of my Decembers have been more fun than others. I remember Christmases bearing the shadow of sadness caused by death…those uncomfortable, sometimes seemingly unbearable, “firsts” without a beloved family member. I remember Christmases marred by disappointment, failing to live up to my expectations. I remember Christmases freakishly different than how they had ever been celebrated before and feeling let down and cheated.

It’s good to have experienced those Christmases.

I’ve also known magical Christmases where every part of the celebration exceeded my expectations…when I’ve been surprised with the perfect present, everyone got along and went out of their way to make the day special for everyone else, people loved their gifts, the meal turned out fit for a Food Network Channel special, and and the house looked like a page from Southern Living. And as if it couldn’t get any better, there was the Christmas Day I had a baby girl. Our nurses enjoyed that, too, as they brought her out to us wearing a Santa hat.

It’s good to have experienced those Christmases.

And since I’ve lived through the extremes and every point in between in terms of Christmas celebrations, I’ve learned not to fear the imperfect nor to expect joy from circumstance.

It couldn’t be more clear to me that the reason I celebrate never changes. It is not dependent on what may or may not hide under the tree or bake in the oven. Fudge doesn’t set? No problem. Eat it with a spoon. It doesn’t depend on whose chair sits empty at the table. Love is eternal and death doesn’t win. It doesn’t depend on where I am or who I’m with. And this is good news…good news of great joy for all people.

For I have no control over life and death. I have no control how other people choose to feel, think or act. I have not control over many of the circumstances of life. I can’t even consistently control the consistency of my fudge.

But this I know and this is always worth celebrating. I am loved. You are loved. We are forgiven, declared righteous by the blood of the baby whose birth we celebrate. It is the gift given to us by grace, by the undeserved, unmerited favor of our God towards us, his beloved. And this never changes.

While circumstances and traditions around you may change, our Father says, “I, the LORD, do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9:2)

And that is why I love December first. I pray your holiday season is filled with blessing.

Posted in Celebrations, Christian Living, Christmas, Faith, Fathers, Forgivness, Grace, Greatest love ever, Grief, Holiday, Hope, loneliness on holidays, Love, Remembering, traditions, Uncategorized | Tagged baby Jesus, birth, change, Christmas, decorating, Disappointment, food, forgiveness, God, Jesus, love, loved, presents, reason to celebrate, righteousness, tradition | 3 Comments

Getting Ready for Christmas . . . by Andrea R. Huelsenbeck

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

My mother-in-law had a Thanksgiving Day tradition of stacking all her Christmas records on the record player spindle and playing them non-stop until New Years. That’s how we knew it was time to get ready for Christmas.

Even though retail establishments have been ready for Christmas for months, Black Friday is the day I start to get ready. (But I won’t go out shopping today. That would be crazy.)

I’ve probably already bought some Christmas presents. I hope I can remember what I bought and where I put them . . .

This is my process of holiday preparation:

Now is when I make a list of all the people we want to give presents to, notated with gift ideas. My husband Greg and I divide the list and shop for our assigned people.
Also, around this time people start asking me what I want for Christmas. So I have to think of something to tell them. One of the benefits of growing old is I either have everything I want, or I’ve lived without it for so long that I’ve learned to be content without it. I really don’t need anything. But loved ones appreciate a suggestion.
Time to get out my Christmas jewelry: the jingle bell necklace, the snowflake earrings, the Nativity scene pin, and the wreath pin. I will be wearing these often in the next month.
The next task is to send Christmas cards. When I was teaching elementary general music, there were years I didn’t send cards, because I was so tapped out with many concerts to prepare in addition to my teaching duties. I got home from work late every day and had no energy for correspondence. Happily, I no longer have that hardship.

Photo by Drew Saunders

I keep a Christmas card database with names and addresses. I print off mailing labels, so I can just sign the cards and put them in the mail (or hand-deliver to people I know I’m going to see). I usually buy Christmas cards on clearance. My favorites are the art cards from The Metropolitan Museum of Art store. You might want to request their catalog.

Photo by Cornischong at Lb.Wikipedia

Go to Trader Joe’s and see if they still have any German Advent Calendars with a piece of chocolate for each day. (I may have already done this. Several times. I may or may not know what happened to said chocolate.) While I’m there, I’ll look for two other traditional German Christmas foods from my childhood: Stollen (a yeast bread with dried fruit and nuts baked in it) and Pfeffernüsse (round spice cookies covered with powdered sugar). These are mandatory. It is not Christmas if we don’t eat these.
Then there’s the Christmas tree debate. My husband likes a cut tree—and he likes to put it up as close to Christmas as possible. (When Greg was a child, Santa put up the tree at his house when he delivered his presents.) I, on the other hand, think it’s wasteful to buy a tree that was cut down merely to decorate someone’s living room for a week or two. I’d be happy with an artificial tree that we could reuse year after year. When I was a mom-at-home, the tree was my domain. When I went to work full-time, Greg took over that chore with my blessing. Since I didn’t want the job of putting the tree up and decorating it (and taking it down and putting away all the ornaments), I acquiesced to Greg’s will.

Last year, the day we went out to the Christmas tree lot to buy our tree, the lot was closed, with no sign or anything to indicate what time it would be open for business. Not willing to wait around or come back later, I said, “They’re selling potted Norfolk pines at the grocery store.” Intrigued, Greg said, “Let’s take a look at them.”

Now, I have to confess—the previous year we bought a different potted tree with every intention of planting it in the yard after the holidays. Do you think I could have kept it alive until we got around to planting it? Maybe you’ve never seen my black thumb.

Norfolk pines have a high humidity requirement. They can’t be planted outside in the Arizona desert. But we bought a 3-foot tree, planning to try to keep it alive, this time inside. Greg named it Maurice. It drops lots of little branchlets (I don’t know if that’s a characteristic of the tree or if Zoe and Cloud, our cats, break them off when we’re not looking), but it’s four feet tall now, and it will be our Christmas tree this year.

One more mandatory food item: homemade sticky buns for Christmas breakfast. I set them up the night before (they rise overnight), and the first thing I do when I get up Christmas morning is pre-heat the oven.

Marsha’s Easy Cinnamon Rolls

1 stick of butter, melted

¾ C. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ C. chopped nuts

1 package frozen dinner rolls

¾ package butterscotch pudding (the kind you cook, not instant)

Mix together: melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Use a well-greased angel-food or Bundt cake pan. Place nuts in the bottom of the pan and distribute frozen rolls around the pan. Sprinkle the pudding mix over the rolls. Pour the butter/brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over the rolls and cover the pan with a clean dishtowel. Let the pan sit on the counter overnight. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and carefully turn over onto a large plate.

Disclaimer: my children will always remember 1999 as the Christmas Mommy almost burned the house down. I made these buns for the first time in an angel-food pan and didn’t think to put the pan on a cookie sheet. As it baked, the brown sugar coating leaked out of the bottom of the pan and dripped onto the oven floor. Reasoning that it would be bad to cook the Christmas turkey in a sugary oven, I started the self-cleaning feature of the oven. Within minutes, the sugar ignited, the house filled with smoke, and flames shot out of the oven! My husband saved the day by turning off the cleaning cycle, and scraping the burnt sugar out when the oven cooled. The moral of the story: Put the pan on a cookie sheet!

The most important thing I do to prepare for Christmas is meditate on the mystery of God incarnate. I think about what it must have been like for His young mother to endure questions concerning her pregnancy; how His parents became refugees in Egypt, fleeing the threat of His murder; about the pain and suffering He willingly endured for me, so that I might spend eternity in His presence. The peace of Christ be with you this season and always.
Photo by Jeff Weese

Posted in Christmas, Faith, Holiday | Tagged Christmas, faith | 3 Comments

A Thankful Heart of a Heart of Praise by Donna Clark Goodrich

Posted on November 24, 2015 by dgood648

A Thankful Heart—or a Heart of Praise

“…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything” (Ephesians 5:20 niv).

“Develop an attitude of praise,” our pastor told us in his Sunday message. “It will change your life.”

I decided to take him up on it, much to my family’s irritation. No matter what or who they complained about, I reminded them of something to be thankful for.

This went on all week. If it rained, I thanked God it didn’t flood. If it was too hot, I was thankful for our air conditioner. If our children complained about getting up in the morning, I told them to be thankful they could walk, reminding them of my friend’s two boys who had to be carried everywhere. When two ladies talked out loud during the church service, I told our family to be thankful they could be there, with both their husbands in wheelchairs.

One day I received a letter from our denominational publishing house. “See,” I said, “holding it up. “I sold an article.” I opened the envelope and found…a bill for our church magazine subscription.

This didn’t stop me, however. I continued to drive my family crazy finding a reason to be thankful for everything.

Soon, though, things changed. In the space of a few months my mother died of cancer, and my husband had a serious car accident, then a heart attack which led to a retirement at the age of 48. The needs and drama of three teen-agers in a span of seven years increased the stress.

How can I be thankful in everything? I often asked myself. Then one day while listening to the words of a song, the answer came to me: Being thankful is for things God gives to us, but giving praise is for who He is!

Even now, 30 years later— with my husband’s death this year, our daughter and me both having torn rotator cuffs and pneumonia, another daughter and family moving out of state, our son off work for six weeks with heart problems, plus myriad home repairs—realizing who God is–my strength, my comfort, my healer–makes it easier for me to have a thankful heart and a heart of praise.

What are you especially thankful for this Thanksgiving season?

Posted in Family Life, Life Transitions, Thanksgiving | Tagged thankfulness | Leave a comment

A Memorial of Thanks

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Linda Carlblom

Last year at Thanksgiving time I blogged about Our Linen Thanksgiving Journal, a tradition that my family has kept for over a decade. There’s another thing we’ve done, not quite as regularly as writing on the tablecloth, but some family members like it just as well.

First, I’ll give you some background. In the Bible, when someone had an encounter with God or wished to express his thanks, he often built an altar or memorial to God out of stones. When he or a future generation saw the memorial, they would recall the goodness of God in that situation. Some examples of this are found in Joshua 4:1-10, Genesis 28:10-22, Genesis 35:6-7, Exodus 17:8-16, Exodus 24:3-4.

Thanksgiving rocks

Several years ago, I thought it might be nice for our family to start our own memorials to remember God’s goodness to us. So I bought some smooth river rocks and placed them in a basket on Thanksgiving. I asked each person at our Thanksgiving meal to choose a permanent marker, then write the year on the rock. They were then to write one thing they were thankful for or something God had done for them that year. They could either take the rock home and start individual rock memorials or compile them to make a family memorial. The memorials could be placed anywhere—on a desk, in a corner of the yard, in a prominent place in the living room—wherever they would see it and be reminded of God’s goodness. When people who came to their house asked what the pile of rocks was, well, there was an opportunity to share what God had done in their lives.

The beginning of a rock memorial.

I still provide rocks every year for those who want to continue adding to their memorials. They are constant reminders of God’s unfailing love to us.

What traditions do you do on Thanksgiving? Or what’s one you’d like to start? Share them in the comments.

Linda

Posted in Faith, Faithfulness, Family Life, Holiday, Legacy, Life, Remembering, Thanksgiving, traditions | Tagged altars, biblical altars, biblical memorials, family altar, God's goodness, memorials, remembering, rock memorials, Thanksgiving, traditions | 2 Comments

Can Your Story Change the World? . . . by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Andrea R Huelsenbeck

This article previously appeared on ARHtistic License.

“We have no problems.” That’s what my husband, Greg, and I say to each other while watching the news on TV. The turmoil and suffering we see around the world make our own challenges and frustrations miniscule in comparison.

As my selection from Asia for the Around the World Reading Challenge, I chose I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban. Malala Yousafzai is Pakistani, though her co-author, journalist Christina Lamb, is British. Malala is, of course, the 2014 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism on behalf of education.

This book humbled me. The descriptions of the hardships that the people of Pakistan face on a daily basis brought me to tears, as did the efforts of this young girl and her father to provide solutions through education.

In a culture where women are of little consequence, Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, is atypical in that he unabashedly loves and respects his wife and daughter, so much so that he solicits and reflects on their opinions and advice. A teacher with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English, he advocated for education, especially of girls, before his own daughter was even born. He built the school Malala attended and served as its administrator.

Pakistan has had more than its share of natural disasters, such as a massive earthquake in 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people. In 2010, floods killed 2,000 people, affecting 14,000,000 people and destroying homes and 7,000 schools. The Pakistani government did little to help its people after these catastrophes; most aid came from Islamic organizations including TSNM, the Taliban of Swat, the region where Malala’s family lived. When the Taliban began moving into the area and expanding their influence, people remembered their assistance and felt obliged to support them. (There is a lesson here for the entire world.)

Mr. Yousafazai’s outspoken resistance to the Taliban’s restrictions against girls’ education earned threats of retaliation; but when he suggested to his daughter that they temporarily abandon their public outrcry, Malala objected:

“How can we do that?” I replied. “You were the one who said if we believe in something greater than our lives, then our voices will only multiply even if we are dead. We can’t disown our campaign!”

So their work continued, but with a tragic setback. After Malala and two classmates were shot by a Taliban gunman on their school bus, Malala was ultimately airlifted to Birmingham, England, where she was more likely to receive the level of care she needed for her recovery.

Though around the world she is recognized for her valor, in her native country there are those (sympathetic to extremist views, perhaps) who accuse her of using her circumstances to catapult herself into a life of luxury. Malala ignores the criticism, and instead focuses on her goal: universal access to education. Her father shares this objective in his work as the education attaché for the Pakistan consulate in England and as the advisor to the UN for global education.

I Am Malala is a must read. It goes beyond being a nice story about a courageous girl; it challenges the reader to support what is right, even if it leads to one’s own death.

Can your life story change the world?

This is my second installment in the Around the World Reading Challenge sponsored by the blog Booking It. For my first installment, please see What is My Calling?

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