A
great soul has passed on. The world will always remember Nelson Mandela
as a man who brought an end to apartheid peacefully, when no one
believed it could be done. From prisoner to president, he will remain an
inspiration to all cultures and all nations around the world. The impossible is possible.
In 2009, my husband and I filmed a documentary titled Reconciliation: Mandela's Miracle. It is not we who coined the phrase but the South Africans themselves. After 300 years of vicious oppression, the black and colored people of that nation were able to let go of generational torment to allow peace to prevail.
We filmed on Robben Island, where Mandela had been held captive for 27 years. The cell where his transformation occurred, from armed terrorist to consummate mediator and peacemaker, was the last stop on our shoot. As the location was being filmed, a Robben Island guide hurried into the area to inform us that the ferry taking us back to the mainland was leaving earlier than expected.
Our crew wrapped up quickly and began hoofing their heavy gear back to the dock. The guide, who was an aspiring producer, offered to help the crew. He handed me the keys to the prison cell where Mandela had lived for several decades and hurried off to help carry bulky camera gear.
There I stood, alone in the jail that was once a house of horrors, now a museum that maintained the cells as they were when Mandela and his compatriots were confined. A pervasive, eery silence permeated the atmosphere. I wondered what karma brought me to this moment, standing alone in front of Madiba's cell, holding the keys to his steel cage. As the moment burned into my brain, a ray of light shot through the window, beaming dead center onto the spot where Mandela must have endured through all those years.
It was only sunlight breaking through the clouds, but somehow those rays illuminating Mandela's cell seemed to come from a divine source. That little cell radiated a sacred energy befitting the man who had graced its cement floor.
And lest the world forget Madiba's magic, he had one last gesture. At the world premiere of a feature film on his life, attended by his daughter-ambassadors and the British royal family, news was delivered while the film in progress: he had just passed.
Mandela's spirit soared into the Light as his legacy was brought to the masses through the light of a projector.
In 2009, my husband and I filmed a documentary titled Reconciliation: Mandela's Miracle. It is not we who coined the phrase but the South Africans themselves. After 300 years of vicious oppression, the black and colored people of that nation were able to let go of generational torment to allow peace to prevail.
We filmed on Robben Island, where Mandela had been held captive for 27 years. The cell where his transformation occurred, from armed terrorist to consummate mediator and peacemaker, was the last stop on our shoot. As the location was being filmed, a Robben Island guide hurried into the area to inform us that the ferry taking us back to the mainland was leaving earlier than expected.
Our crew wrapped up quickly and began hoofing their heavy gear back to the dock. The guide, who was an aspiring producer, offered to help the crew. He handed me the keys to the prison cell where Mandela had lived for several decades and hurried off to help carry bulky camera gear.
There I stood, alone in the jail that was once a house of horrors, now a museum that maintained the cells as they were when Mandela and his compatriots were confined. A pervasive, eery silence permeated the atmosphere. I wondered what karma brought me to this moment, standing alone in front of Madiba's cell, holding the keys to his steel cage. As the moment burned into my brain, a ray of light shot through the window, beaming dead center onto the spot where Mandela must have endured through all those years.
It was only sunlight breaking through the clouds, but somehow those rays illuminating Mandela's cell seemed to come from a divine source. That little cell radiated a sacred energy befitting the man who had graced its cement floor.
And lest the world forget Madiba's magic, he had one last gesture. At the world premiere of a feature film on his life, attended by his daughter-ambassadors and the British royal family, news was delivered while the film in progress: he had just passed.
Mandela's spirit soared into the Light as his legacy was brought to the masses through the light of a projector.
What a testament to the Healing Power of Light....Gave me chills to read this.....
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