This week it was the birthday of Anne Frank. If she had been allowed to live, she would have been 80 years old. She is caught in our imaginations as a teenage girl and her extraordinary writings capture the same fears, concerns and hopes held today. She wanted to be the best writer she could be, she wanted the best from life and she wanted the best for other people. She wrote 'I will not remain insignificant, I will go into the world and help mankind.' She was hated for who she was, but unwittingly became one of the the most successful diarists in the world.
I love this quote she wrote when she was still in hiding:
"From my favourite 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."
This morning I was listening to some meditations about Anne and heard this affirmation from Thea Hurst, who also wrote a diary whilst living in Germany during the war which will be published in English later this year. She says
'I need to love and show understanding to everyone I meet. That is my religion today.'
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