• Embed Doc
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Marc Chagall,
  Elijah Touched by an Angel 
 YESTERDAY 
 was one of those long days. Just after ten o'clock in the evening Isat down at my computer and noted that an e-mail/ comment had come inshortly before. relating to a posting done last January reporting an extraordinarcorrespondence between Rebecca Hammann, a well-loved schoolteacher inCalifornia, and one Barack Obama. Rebecca, the passionately devoted mother of her two-year old Lucy, had received a diagnosis of terminal cancer and knew she was to die. In that critical moment, she picked up her pen.The e-mail was from Diane Floyd, Rebecca’s sister. It said:
Rebecca Hammann passed away this morning, December 7, 2009 at 6:15 AMand we'd like to be able to share this web-site with people who want to readher letter and the response.
She brought to my attention technical difficulties with the posting that are notimportant now, but that made its reading a difficult proposition. I wrote Diane,offered to her and the family my heartfelt condolences, and said of course I wouldfix the problem. Then I undertook to battle Wordpress, once again. After some thought, it occurred to me that the best way I might honor Rebecca’sliving memory, and celebrate the love for Lucy held by her so tenderly within herheart, was to republish the posting. Part of the true glory and mystery of Love,
 
after all, is that it never belongs to just
some
of us. It knows no limits andrequires no reason. Love is never static but ripples always outwards, touch
 
after
touch
after touch, and so on, out towards infinity. Towards center. Like it or not,speak of, or even
see
it or not-- it binds all of us together. And so I am grateful. When this woman found herself pushed to a point of utmost crisis, darkness all around, she reached deep into her heart, and shared. And all I can see there are words woven of luminous gold, all the more brilliantfor the darkness surrounding. There is only one message to be read
"betweenthe lines" 
here, and it is the only one that really 
matters
. It may be nearly enoughto lead one to
hope
.Here; read for yourself. The post of January 27, 2009, enhanced only by theaddition of a few illustrations. _______________________________________________________
Rebecca Hammann Writes Barack Obama
You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now youmust go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there arethings to be considered...Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be agood time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyesopen, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time inhistory, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to ahalt.
 
The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves!Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. Allthat we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.We are the ones we've been waiting for.
Prophecy, Hopi Elders, 1980
The
hour for Hope is now, and there may not be a moment to lose. That, to me, isgood news.In a conversation with my brother Whitney a couple of days ago, he mentionedthat the sister of one of his colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra inNew York City had written a letter to Barack Obama, and proceeded to read it tome. That woman's name is Rebecca Hammann, a beloved middle-school scienceteacher in Fairfield, California. Rebecca is apparently the greatest and mostinspiring kind of teacher and has a heart of huge, even legendary, proportions. Yet the clear love of her life and very heart of the heart of her passion is her 2 1/2 year-old adoptive daughter, Lucy.Just months ago, Rebecca received a conclusive diagnosis of terminal cancer, andlearned that she does not have long to live. When the days of one so alive are allat once so shortly numbered, and yet heart still bursts with a sacred love thatknows no bounds, what is she to do? Rebecca Hammann sat down in Novemberto write a letter to Barack Obama. I immediately felt to share her letter with you,and the President's response. We are all in this together, and even having wandered together for so long through the valley of shadows, I feel hopedawning. Here and now 
.
Dear President-Elect Obama,For the last year or so I have felt as if the world was falling apart. Our system is based on buying more than we need, more cheaply than the truecosts. We believe that we deserve comfort and ease and material thingsthat our Earth cannot afford to give us. That is why I hoped so much thatyou would be elected. You bring hope and true leadership to this countryand this world. There is a chance, now, for my two-year-old daughter tolive in a world of beauty and love instead of the chaos and greed I had begun to imagine for her.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...