Our Preparations for Mandela Day

Did you know that Mandela Day is coming up? Yes, there is a day dedicated to Nelson Mandela. It is interesting to have a day to commemorate Nelson Mandela. It does not fall on the day of his leaving this world for the day began when Mandela was still alive. Mandela day falls on his birthday, the 18th of July. The significance of this day lies in what Mandela strove to achieve.

There are a few powerful statements that Mandela made which are very inspiring. Here is one of them: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” – Nelson Mandela

I am not sure when I first heard of Nelson Mandela but I became aware of the worlds interest in him when I was in the UK after high school. I had gone into the South Africa House on Trafalgar Square in London for something and could not help but notice some students standing outside. When I came out again, I stopped to find out what their protest was about. They were campaigning to free Mandela!

I asked them if they knew who Mandela was and what they knew about South Africa. No, none of them had been to South Africa, none of them really knew much about Mandela either. They just knew that he was in prison and were staging a protest for his release. As to their knowledge of South Africa, one student described South Africa as having lions that roam around the streets.

I smiled and let them know that I had lived in South Africa for many years and although I had met some impressive people and I had seen lions in game parks, I had not seen any lions roaming down any of the streets.

Some compare Nelson Mandela to a lion. He had an incredible inner strength and a vision of a world with unity and where children are assisted to achieve and to contribute to the world. He had many positive messages that he left the world.

Why do I share these thoughts now, nearly two weeks before Mandela Day? Well, we are preparing a special article to share on Mandela Day. I was just typing it up and I was so inspired that I have requested more stories of this nature to be written as well. I am so looking forward to sharing more about the development of this and other books. They are of course written by one of my most inspiring teachers, none other than Rosemary Kahn.

So mark your calendars and visit this blog on Mandela Day. We have a wonderful story to share with you and we aim to add this to a collection of stories. There are plenty more where it came from, so stay tuned for a book in the making. The next in the collection of books written by Rosemary Kahn, one of my favourite authors.

This post is prepared for you by Shoshanah Shear, occupational therapist, healing facilitator, certified infant massage instructor, freelance writer, author of "Healing Your Life Through Activity - An Occupational Therapist's Story" and co-author of "Tuvia Finds His Freedom".