luellen's blog: "never give up !!"

INSIDE JOB Whoever is happy will make others happy, too. --Anne Frank Anne Frank had good reason to be unhappy, full of fear, and deeply discouraged. Years of her life were spent in a small apartment hiding from the Nazis who wanted to destroy her and her family. Anne and her family were locked in a small room no bigger then a closet. In spite of the constant strain of being discovered and as Anne put it "taken out and shot", she had an attitude that can best be described as Angelic, seeing life as an adventure where happiness was the ruling monarch and Love was queen. Yet even in this little hiding place she had happiness. It was something she had inside which did not depend on what happened around her. She had riches of the heart. She had faith that kept her going. She had love and concern for her family and others, which made even a restricted life very rich with feelings. It is tempting to believe that we will be happy when we have something outside ourselves, which will make us happy. But happiness is not something we have to find outside; the seeds are in our hearts already. Wishes Sometimes the people in hiding talk at length about what they want to do when they are free again. On July 23, 1943, Anne writes down everybody’s wishes: "Margot and Mr. Van Pels wish, above all else, to have a hot bath, filled to the brim, which they can lie in for more than half an hour. Mrs. Van Pels would like a cake, Pfeffer can think of nothing but seeing his Charlotte and Mother is dying for a cup of real coffee. Father would like to visit Mr. Voskuijl, Peter would go downtown, and as for me, I'd be so overjoyed I wouldn't know where to begin. Most of all I long to have a home of our own, to be able to move around freely and have someone help me with my homework again, at last. In other words, to go back to school!" Anne died a day after her mother in a Nazi concentration camp at the age of fifteen. What happiness can I find in my latest setback? If you listen very carefully you might hear Anne's beautiful spirit chime in at the end of the song.................... "Open your heart to Love and Love will open your heart"