52-Card Pickup: 52CP04: Spreading Light

Good Sunday morning to you! I hope your week has been fun and inspired and full of "best days ever"!

This week's inspiration is from one of several books I own written by Robert Fulghum (best known for "All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten") I love his style of writing, and he has a lot of really good things to say. He has been a lot of places and done a lot of things (Unitarian minister, rodeo cowboy, teacher to name a few), and tells little stories about some of his thoughts and adventures and encounters in his books. Fast, fun reading, and usually educational and/or thought-provoking, too. I enjoy him enormously!

Anyway, on to the inspiration: In his book "It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It", he recounts the answer to his question, "What is the meaning of life?" given by Alexander Papaderos, who founded an institute devoted to healing the wounds of war on the island of Crete after World War II:

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.
And what he said went like this:

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine - in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game, but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But light - truth, understanding, knowledge - is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.
"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of the world - into the black places in the hearts of men - and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."

And then he took his small round mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of sunlight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.

Much food for thought here, and I made only an ATC this week to share with you:

Papers: K & Co dp, unknown parchment, DCWV blue, Best Occasions silver and gold; Accessories/Tools: Nestabilities Symbology and Labels Four, Martha Stewart goo border punch and radiant punch, Micron pen, Corner Chomper

I included an Edith Wharton quote in my own handwriting: "There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

Now it's your turn! Be sure to include the label/tag 52CP04 if you upload to SCS or another online gallery, and thanks for joining me again this week!