{"id":2974,"date":"2015-02-19T13:54:26","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T18:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2015-02-19T13:54:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T18:54:26","slug":"springtime-when-the-seeds-i-planted-began-to-sprout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/springtime-when-the-seeds-i-planted-began-to-sprout\/","title":{"rendered":"Springtime: \u201cWhen The Seeds I Planted Began to Sprout\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farmer: Rivi Kosover, Assistant Director, Ezer Mizion Jerusalem Branch
\n\u201cAnd thank you so much for the lovely gift,\u201d she tried to smile as her visitor left the hospital for the real world. She fingered the soft folds of new robe. \u201cSomething to make you feel pretty while in the hospital,\u201d her friend has said. It truly was lovely but it spoke of illness, of helplessness.<\/em>
\n\"pr<\/a>Her eyes lit up as I came into view. \u201cI brought you a gift,\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s a cookbook for when you leave this place. I hope you\u2019ll find some new recipes and please don\u2019t forget to invite me to taste them.\u201d There was nothing forced in the patient\u2019s smile as she eagerly perused the Table of Contents.
\nThe sentence I planted:<\/strong>
\nWe sat and planned\u2026an orange sherbet recipe which her elderly mother will love when she comes to visit\u2026a whole section of chocolate recipes for the widower who lives next door and lights up when she brings over a chocolate concoction for Shabbos.
\nThe talk turned to Ezer Mizion where I work as assistant director. I told her about the project we have of preparing meals for families dealing with cancer and how we never have enough volunteers. Her eyes shone with anticipation. \u2018Put me down for two mornings a week. I\u2019d love to help.\u2019 She hugged me when I left and called me later on my cell to ask some details—should she bring her own apron or do we provide\u2026do we need people to deliver or only to prepare the meals\u2026
\n\u201cThe conversation at Ezer Mizion always centers around nurturing, strengthening sentences. Sentences that plant hope for the future. The woman I visited was dealing with a very challenging situation. She had been hospitalized for a long period and unsurprisingly, perhaps even expectedly, her state of mind was in keeping with that fact. The underlying reason for her profound dejection was the fact that, due to her situation, she was on the side of the takers.\u201d
\n\u201cAll the time I am dependent on other people. I need help for every little thing,\u201d she sighed to me one day.
\n\u201cI understood her very well. It isn\u2019t easy to be the needy one, always on the receiving end.
\nAnd so a sentence or two about her soon being on the giving end made all the difference.
\nThe Sentence that Sprouted:<\/strong>
\nAfter some time, with G-d\u2019s help, she recovered and switched sides to become one of the givers. Hours upon hours of volunteering and such joy on her face as she worked.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is all thanks to those encouraging words during my difficult period,\u201d she said. \u201cThat cookbook was the nicest gift I received in the hospital. Remember when we sat and planned my volunteer work? Your words suffused me with the strength to see the dim light beckoning at the end of the dark tunnel.\u201d
\nFor further info: ezermizion.org<\/p>\n

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Farmer: Rivi Kosover, Assistant Director, Ezer Mizion Jerusalem Branch \u201cAnd thank you so much for the lovely gift,\u201d she tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,34],"class_list":["post-2974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ezer-mizion","tag-hospital","tag-illness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2976,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}