Mother, by Deborah Naishipae
Deborah writes about love with a child’s unfiltered honesty. “Love is like the sunshine. It shines for a while and then it’s gone … It is like the birth of a child. It hurts for a while, then is soon forgotten, leaving you with only the memories of a wonderful and loving life.” Deborah is only in grade school, but she knows that with love there is also heartache and loss. How early do we learn that love is both perfect and flawed?
When I founded Lift the Lid eight years ago, my first fundraising strategy for our schools was to ask my family to make donations in lieu of my birthday and Christmas gifts. At first, they were uncomfortable without a gift in hand, but they have since come to understand the gift the students are to me. I love each one wanting nothing in return.
The students experience my love through our writing projects, through the basic needs Lift the Lid covers, and through their education, which we strive to improve every day. Their actions and writings pass that love on to their parents, teachers and friends, and so it goes, love never ending.
We are channels of love and connected by it, a force strong enough to unite the world, if allowed to grow.
Thank you, Mom and Tim, for your love and for this year’s Christmas gift, your donation to Namelok Junior Academy in Kisamis, Kenya, where Deborah attends the third grade. Our current priorities at Namelok are to buy text books and to pay the teachers’ salaries.
Deborah,
Congratulations on a beautiful poem, and on placing Second in our 2017 writing competition! Did you ever think while writing your poem I would want to share it with my mother? That is how love, and even words of love, work — they are shared.
You are a talented writer with a unique way of looking at the world. Please give your all to school and continue to write. You will go far if you fight for these two freedoms: your education and your voice (in the written word.)
I look forward to hearing from you again, hopefully soon,
Sara
Deborah, this message is from my mother, Johanna Masters. I was so proud to share your writing with her, to show your talent and bravery and to pass on your message of appreciation and love. Your words to your mother are sincere and touching, and I wish we could pass them on to good mothers everywhere.
Please see the following message from my mother:
Your poem on Love touched my heart! As a mother myself, I know how true your words can be. My own mother, who has passed away, demonstrated the kind of love you write about, and I have tried to follow in her foot-steps. I’m sure you will be a wonderful example for love as you grow older, continuing to inspire others through your words and actions. Love never dies; it just passes from one to another down through the years. Congratulations on your winning poem and thank you for sharing it! I hope you will keep writing–and loving! Johanna Masters