March 8, 2021 — “To Rising” reads the inside of our Meanings of Life Phoenix card. One of our Creative team’s favorite designs, we’ve wanted to feature it in our Cardie Newsletter for nearly a year now and have been waiting and watching for the most fitting time.
With more than 52 million Americans now fully-vaccinated and — fingers crossed! — Covid Relief soon on its way to those who need it, we thought, “This is the day.”
Beyond showing you this auspicious card, we want to invite you to dream … join us in imagining our world without Covid and, together, let’s finally wish that dream into being. Contributing Cardie Jenni Betz recently shared a great line she’d heard and believes belongs on a card: “I’m going to hug you right out of your shoes!” Isn’t that just a perfect way of imagining how good it will feel to be able to hug anyone and everyone long and hard again?! To rising!
If you have time, I’d like to share a story about wishing and dreaming … it stars my neighbor, Nina, a tiny, beautifully-coiffed, 90-something Holocaust survivor, and one of the most positive and joyful people I’ve ever known. A few years ago, I was sitting by the shore next to Nina, drafting what is now our Meanings of Life Bucket List card. When Nina wondered what I was up to, I explained, then asked if she had a bucket list. In answer, she pointed one lovely, knotted old finger way out to sea and said, “See that cruise ship?” which prompted me to ask, “You want to go on a cruise?”
She exclaimed, “I’ve been on a cruise!” and then, with the lyrical Polish accent that makes it easy to imagine her as a beguiling girl, Nina shared, “Back in the camps, we would have one dress to wear. Come laundry day, all the girls would stand together around the big tub, taking off our dresses, washing them as best we could, and putting them back on to dry.
“Naturally, there were girls who would complain,” Nina remembered, “always saying things like, ‘What horrible conditions! Will we ever have a nice life again? Will we even make it out of here alive? Will we ever see our families?’ Of course I had all the same concerns, but I chose to think and speak differently in order to help keep all our spirits high.
“I would invite all the girls to dream,” Nina explained. “I would say, ‘What dress do you see yourself wearing when you meet the man you are going to marry?’ Or, ‘Describe the wedding dress you want to wear under such a beautiful chuppha one day.’ Focusing on what we wanted for our future rather than our current conditions lifted us up and made us hopeful again! Me, I would always talk about the dress I saw myself in while dancing on the deck of a cruise ship with the man of my dreams.
“Then, some 40 years later,” Nina recalled, “one of the cruise lines here in the Port of Miami offered a free trip to any Holocaust survivor who wished to go. We went! So there I was — just as I pictured so clearly — alive and well and dancing on the deck with the man of my dreams.”
Cardies, like the dreamcatcher that is Nina, we hope you’ll put on your wishing cap today. Take a few minutes to dream of all you want to do post-Covid. Then, like Nina, let’s hold so fast to our cherished thoughts that we soon will them right into being.
To rising!
Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative
Thanks for lovely start to my day!
“alive and well and dancing on the deck with the man of my dreams”…what could be better!
I see dreams as artistic renditions of our goals. It helps us to keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter the obstacles, and someday getting to the finish line. Just like training for and completing a marathon. Ya gotta wanna ;)
What a beautiful story! May we all dream like Nina.
Lovely story! I will let my imagination to dream today about dancing at Cruise Ship Deck with a beautiful red dress.
When that special day comes …..please give Nina a big hug from me. She reminds me of someone who told me years ago that we have a choice to make every morning and she always chose to be happy. And she was.
Thank you for a beautiful start to a happy day!
Nina made me cry and laugh. May this world rise out of all this sadness and into a new and sparkling environment – with lots of hugs!
What an absolutely beautiful story! Further proof that positivity is magic…
What a beautiful story of courage and hope. Dreaming is so important! Here’s to all of those like Nina who dare dream their desire into reality.
Thank you for sharing Nina’s beautiful, hopeful dream during such a desperate time. of her young life. It certainly puts our current situation in perspective!❤️
We need more Nina’s in our world❤️
What a beautiful soul. Xo