Madre mía, en el sueño / Mother of mine, in my dream

Madre mía, en el sueño
ando por paisajes cardenosos:
un monte negro que se contornea
siempre, para alcanzar el otro monte;
y en el que siempre estás tú vagamente,
pero siempre hay otro monte redondo
que circundar, para pagar el paso
al monte de tu gozo y de mi gozo

Mother, in my dream
I walk purplish landscapes:
a black mountain that sways
trying to reach the other mountain;
and you are always in it vaguely,
but there is always another round mountain
to be walked around to pay the toll
to get to the mountain of your joy and mine.~Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral is one of my favorite poets—a prophetic voice that spoke out for human rights and the rights of children, women and the poor before they were included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She took a stand for democracy and spoke out against Fascism and was thrown out of Italy by Mussolini for her political stance. A Chilean and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, she became a voice for the disenfranchised: Native Americans, Jews, war victims, worker's rights and for the destiny of indigenous people of her dear Latin America. She used her pen to awaken social justice in the minds of her generation.

While her poem "Mother, in my dream," relates directly to her own mother's death, I see it as a metaphor, a tribute to the steadfast endurance of each of us to cross from one mountain to the next, endlessly circling, trudging our way.It is our resilience that keeps us going even though tolls rear-up to make us pay an unexpected price. Finally, the vista at the top allows us to fulfill the dream.

Global Gala Proves Compassion is Alive and Hope is With Us

Plan to participate virtually in the Charter for Compassion's Global Gala on November 20th. Hear the founder of the Charter for Compassion, Karen Armstrong, invite each of us to think beyond the present to envision a possible world of renewal. Listen as Holocaust survivor and honoree Rabbi Soetendorp reminds us that it is time for tikkun olam, a time to repair the world.

We'd like to introduce you to another of the nine honorees who will receive our Humanitarian Award. Today, it is Magdalena Whoolery. When Magdalena contacted the Charter in 2013, in an excited call she announced, "Botswana, needs compassion." She was a new arrival to the country and during the initial weeks of being in Gaborone, the capital, she saw what she termed injustice in the healthcare sector and apathy preventing people offering even small acts of kindness to one another.Magdalena set out to build a team of grassroots people to address issues that needed attention: ending corporal punishment in schools; registering indigenous people to guarantee their rights to healthcare and education; housing children whose family members had been lost to HIV; and for Magdalena, preventing children dying of illness due to pressure on mothers to use infant formula. Magdalena and her team addressed each of these issues with fierce determination. Listen to her speak during our Gala.It will knock the wind out of you.Magdalena will n o t be stopped in her fight for children's lives.Join us. Visit our Gala pages and purchase tickets.
We don't want anyone to be excluded. 

This message from Marilyn Turkovich, Executive Director of the Charter for Compassion, appears in our 10/31/2021 weekly newsletter. To sign up for our newsletter, scroll all the way down to the end of this page to get to the bottom menu, in the newsletter section enter your email address and click on subscribe.