How To Breakthrough When You're Grief Stricken!
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| Gidi Kindness Project |
It’s never easy when you feel like a victim. It may come from a
breakup or something as horrific as a violent crime or tragedy.
You have every right to your feelings (including sadness and
despair), but what if you added empowerment. What other meaning can you take
from what happened and do something good with it.
Here’s some examples of people who chose to fight back and include
joy with their sorrow.
One generous loving family, started #Gidi'sKindnessProject. Their
youngest son was killed in a boating accident. At almost 5 years old, he touched
so many lives with his vibrant smile and his beautiful outlook on the world. He
loved color and to make things sparkle. He was a true gift – now an angel
shining his light from heaven.
Gidi's Kindness Project is doing random acts of kindness, sort of
like the movie “Pay It Forward”. The Hebrew word for this is “tikun olam” or
repairing the world. Help others and in the process, you get healed.
In Gidi’s honor numerous donations have been made. My sister
has been giving out gift cards to child care workers at her gym and goody bags
to the sanitation workers for their contribution in making her community a cleaner
place (and asking them to do something kind for someone else).
Another story speaks about a father’s love. His daughter was
diagnosed with leukemia. “The odds for survival (at that time) were only 5%”. Stricken with grief he realized he had to do
something to improve her chances. He fortunately had the money to pay for her
care, but many others were not so lucky. How could he change that?
Bruce Cleland developed a non-profit organization (with the
help of his friends) to raise money for cancer research and
treatment. It also helps support family members so they could be with their
loved ones while they got treatment.
This noble organization known as Team In Training (TNT) trains
people of all abilities to compete in endurance events (typically a marathon or
triathlon, while raising money). My sister is a coach and has witnessed
firsthand its many benefits. One member raised enough money to help treat his
mom with breast cancer and be able to stay with her in the hospital. Another team
member got diagnosed herself with cancer and the very next day she signed up
for TNT. With a huge crowd screaming her name (including myself) Deloris
crossed the Disney Marathon in tears.
This charity, now the largest endurance-training program in
the world, has come full circle. The founder’s daughter Georgia completed her
first TNT event at 28, twenty-six years after her father first learned of his
2-year-old’s diagnosis. I’m sorry, "she has acute lymphocytic leukemia".
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| Team in Training founder Bruce Cleland with his daughter Georgia |
What can you do? Small or big, it doesn’t matter. The act is what matters.
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