Travel light on the road of life

This past week I went to the monthly meeting with the representative from child welfare
state agency. As usual, the discussion focused on children – their protection and well-being.

I’m looking around the room. It’s quite a mix of people from different industries:
Health, teaching, entrepreneurs, law and order). They are all volunteers.
(With one exception: the representative from the child welfare agency.)

All working together to find the best approaches in creating a safe environment for
children and their families. A group of people I’m happy to be part of.

Heavy, emotional baggage
Growing up I haven’t been exposed to the type of challenges these children and their families were facing.
And I thought, on my way home, how these kids start their young lives with a handicap.
Yes, we know children are resilient.
Still. Some will carry with them that extra “baggage” throughout their lives.

Betrayed trust
And I made a note to myself to be more understanding next time I meet someone that tries my patience.
Someone that may act, “rough around the edges” so to speak.
Maybe it’s an adult who had a rough childhood – one where the child’s trust has been betrayed.

You CAN build a better life
I’ll do my best – I’ll be patient and understanding to a point!
To those of you who know me, you do remember one of my favorite expressions:
When you know better, you do better!

That applies here as well. I would say to them:
“Yes, life has dealt you a bad deck of cards to begin with.
But you can’t use that as an excuse for the rest of your life.
Work on it and pull yourself up – you can do it!
You CAN build a better life for yourself!

That being said, before they can do better, they have to know better.
That’s when you and I come into the picture.
We don’t have a magic wand to erase all the hurt but we can still do magic.
What we can do is (kindly and gently) remind them to travel light.

Remind them to leave their heavy baggage behind.
Remind them good people do exist.
Remind them, and yourself, the world can be a beautiful place.

                        
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Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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