We Are ALL Connected

I just finished reading The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund, a not-for-profit global venture fund that uses local entrepreneurs to help resolve local dilemmas associated with poverty in such countries as India, Africa and Pakistan. It is a fascinating adventure of personal growth, wisdom, passion and vision, and it all began with a treasured blue sweater that Jacqueline received as gift when she was a young girl. When she was finally forced to donate her beloved sweater with the zebras and snow capped Mt. Kilimanjaro on the front to the Goodwill, she did so reluctantly.

Fast forward 12 years, Jacqueline is jogging through Kigali, Rwanda, while there to help set up a microfinance institution for poor women and she sees a young boy wearing her sweater. Imagine what both she and the poor boy wearing the sweater were thinking as she ran up to him and searched for her name written on the tag. He must have been terrified by the crazy white women, while she must have been trying to fathom the connection that spanned so many years and thousands of miles. This is just the beginning of journey that is conscious and filled with deliberate acts of kindness.

The blue sweater must have some amazing stories of its own, can you imagine the children that have treasured it over the years and miles. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know some of those stories, to learn how it journeyed from family to family, country to country, the tears, the laughter, joys and sorrow of childhood. It reminds me, of course, of our dakbands, and how wonderful it is to be able to share and read the stories of their adventures as they travel from person to person, community to community, country to country. We are all connected, although it is often difficult to see those connections created by choices we make each and every day because a choice is just a decision, a moment in time. Yet, the outcomes of those choices are profound, especially when it concerns the opportunity to choose kindness.

Day 2 of 31