Photo taken from http://www.annefranktree.comeveryday i get an email that lists things that happened that day in history. i don't always read them... and in fact, i usually delete them before i even open them. but on wednesday i decided to actually read it.
among the many things listed that happened in history on August 1st was:
1944- Thirteen-year-old Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary; days later she and her family were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died at age 15.
i read The Diary of a Young Girl when i was younger... but i really didn't remember much about it. since getting this email on wednesday, i've spent a lot of time researching what happened to Anne & her family. there are several different websites with info... including annefrank.org
the story of Anne, her passion, and her courage inspire me. through her writings she's touched so many thousands of people. the diary has been translated into more than sixty-five languages and has sold more than thirty million copies... and she only lived to be 15 years old. 15! can you imagine? and by the way, she received her first diary only 2 years before her death... on her 13th birthday.
the picture above is the view that Anne had from the annex window... where she and her family were in hiding. she wrote of it: "Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, from my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy."
i've been thinking a lot about passion lately... and when i saw this about Anne... i couldn't help to think about it more. if you have never read her book... you should... i will be re-reading it soon.
"A man without passion is only a latent force, only a possibility, like a stone waiting for the blow from the iron to give forth sparks."
Henri-Frédéric Amiel
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Dr. Howard Thurman
Do what makes you come alive.
Anne once wrote: "I know that I can write..."
what do you know that you can do?
Do it.
2 comments:
i can't remember why, but matt and i were talking about her the other day. as a kid it inspired me, i read it several times. i have her book at home and plan on reading it again once i get back. it will be interesting to see what i get out of it this time around, ten years and lots of experiences later.
I'm mos def inspired.
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