Awed by Graciousness and Generosity

Yesterday in Selma was a day I'll never forget -- and I am so blessed to have a shero in Ms. Bland. If you've read any of the other blog posts you know a bit about Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. I, too, had a passing knowledge of that day. But Ms. Bland, in sharing her own story, helped me not only understand, but truly feel history, I think for the first time in my life.

Ms. Bland took us to a patch of concrete in the George Washington Carver housing projects, the place where the marchers assembled on Bloody Sunday, and she asked each of us to pick up a stone from the ground. She told us that these were the very stones on which the marchers (mostly children) stood before they left to cross the bridge and later be beaten and tear-gassed and trampled by horses. And tears came to her eyes as she said that once that patch of ground was paved over, there would be nothing left of that time. She asked us to take our stone and place it where we will always be able to see it, so that we might never forget and so that it might inspire us toward our own act of courage. You could see the toll that it has taken to keep the memory of those awful events fresh in her mind, to tell her story so that we could learn from it. It is truly a gift to know her.