Shari Della Penna
  • Home
  • About
    • My family
    • My work
    • My favorites
    • FAQ's
  • Contact
  • Blog

"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
   Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
   ​Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
                         Author, Advocate, Advisor

Pilgrim’s Promise (a re-post from a couple of years ago)

11/24/2020

0 Comments

 
     “What’s a Pilgrim, shaynkeit?” Mama asked. “A Pilgrim is someone who came here from the other side to find freedom. That’s me, Molly. I’m a Pilgrim!”
                                       . . .
     “I’m going to put this beautiful doll on my desk,” Miss Stickly announced, “where everyone can see it all the time. It will remind us all that Pilgrims are still coming to America.”
     I decided it takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.
                                                    from Molly’s Pilgrim
                                                      by Barbara Cohen
                                      illustrated by Michael J. Deraney
                                Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1983

       My grandparents were Pilgrims, too. All four of them. They came to America for religious freedom and for opportunity. They were astonishingly brave. They each, in their own time, left their families, everything they knew, put behind everything they feared and sailed into a future full of strangers, strange languages, strange food, strange money. They each learned English. They learned how to buy groceries, set up a bank account, build a business. They became citizens. They adopted America and America adopted them.
       I am grateful for their stalwart acts, their courageous ventures, their self-sufficiency. This Thanksgiving, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.
My grandparents exhibited:
  • Self-reliance
  • Determination
  • Ability to comply with rules that are fair
  • Capacity to stand strong and speak out against rules that are not fair
  • Generosity
  • Compassion for those less fortunate
       I like to think those character traits flowing through my own veins, too. 
       My grandparents did not give up everything for their own selves, for a better life for themselves. They did it for their (future) children, and for me and for my kids and my own grandchildren and even their grandchildren. 
       Today my grandparents would not be called Pilgrims, even though they were. They’d be called immigrants, which they also were. 
       This Thanksgiving I will define immigrants as people whose courage, self-determinism, and faith in a bright future, allowed them to pull up the roots of everything familiar and re-plant themselves into the unknown.
                             Happy Thanksgiving!
                                          --stay curious! (and thankful)
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

         I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly