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Nistar Hidden Miracle
Elita Sohmer Clayman
In a foreign language, the word nistar means several things.
It means something like concealed or hidden miracle. It was
used in the book of Esther in the bible when Esther was
called upon to save her family from the evil doer.
We can have our own hidden miracles that may or may not be
concealed from our conscious beings. Many of us do not know
of our inner strengths or know of our inner abilities
especially since we are getting older which is life’s
process.
Have you ever thought how words can hurt or soothe you? My
mom always taught us kids that if you could not say anything
nice, say nothing at all. I notice as I grow older that
others do not even attempt to do that.
I have a friend who emails her daughters daily. They both
live out of town. She always signs the emails ‘with love
from your mom.’ One daughter responds the same way with love
from your daughter. The other one responds once in a while
that way and other times nothing at all. The woman gets very
upset when she sees this. She seems to need the other
daughter to respond with the simple word of love to soothe
her day.
I want to tell my friend that at this age in her senior
life, she does not need the approval of this daughter. She
knows she was a good mom and if this daughter cannot put
down the simple word of love knowing that her mom craves
this; then this is the daughter’s meanness to her aging mom.
I tell her that she cannot let her daughter steal her life
at this moment in being.
I was cleaning out some drawers and found a piece of paper
from when I went back to get a college degree at age
thirty-three. The Hungarian professor had quite an accent
and the first day I heard him speak in the lecture room, I
thought it would be hard to comprehend what he was saying.
After the first time, I had no trouble and he and I became
great friends.
When the semester was over, I sent him a thank you note for
encouraging me, the oldest member in the class at age
thirty-three. The rest were all teens and I was the most
attentive and productive classmate he had seen in a long
time. One day during the semester I brought my three year
old to class with me because his pre-school was closed for
the day. The professor, Dr. Z. John Levay looked at me and
said that he did not think it the appropriate place for a
tot that day since we were discussing psychology and sex. I
told him that if he misbehaved, I would leave immediately
and that he could not understand what he was lecturing on.
At the end of the class, he came up to me and my son and
said what a wonderful and well behaved child he was and at
that moment Jeffrey jumped into his arms and hugged him.
From that moment of hugging came a long and sincere
friendship between our family and Dr. Levay’s family. We
went to each other’s happy events and celebrated with joy
those lovely times.
When he passed on six years ago, I gave one of the eulogies
at his funeral ceremony in his church. I told of the time
that Jeffrey jumped into his arms and how Dr. Levay had said
to me on the first test essay paper-Mrs.Clayman; you can and
will do better. He gave me a B on it and from that day
forward, I attained all A’s and graduated the college with
honor five years later.
The simple wording of you can and will do better encouraged
me to excel. That is what we can all do in our dancing
regardless of whatever age we begin to dance. Our teachers
can instill in us the faith that we are special people
taking on a lovely sport or hobby and that we will do
fantastic things with it. We can compete, we can social
dance and we will make many new dancing friends at the dance
halls.
One day at the college before I graduated, I wrote a letter
to the dean supporting Dr. Levay’s quest for his full
professorship. The college was withholding it for some
reason and I wrote this letter of what he meant to me in my
life and to everyone who he offered his hope to do well. Lo
and behold, the college who had been suppressing the
confirmation of the professorship in full awarded it to him.
He wrote me a thank you note and in it he stated
To my star student Elita Sohmer Clayman who has earned my
sincere respect because she has found herself and who, as an
adult became a child again; a Child of God, by virtue of
being a peacemaker.
That was in 1970. I had bridged the wide gulf between the
school administration and their petty ways in withholding
what was surely due this gifted scholar and teacher. The
teens and I loved him and he introduced to all of us,
regardless of age that we were special and we could
transcend any expectations we had of our schooling.
We can all be peacemakers if we implant the seed of learning
to someone who thinks they cannot learn because of age or
youth or even impairment. We fortify and embolden them that
they too can be successful in anything new they attempt. It
can be ballroom dancing, piano lessons, and sewing, anything
they desire.
We who dance know that to dance is to enhance our life to
the fullest. We reap benefits that one cannot imagine from
dance. We have better health, we have extended our mind’s
ability to think, we breathe better, we smile more often and
most of all we have fun.
Fun helps to make us happy and health officials say that if
you are happy, you possibly live longer. Like the daughter
who does not put the word love down and she knows that her
mom would be so happy to see it; we need not withhold
anything from letting us assist someone to feel better. To
be a child of God because we are peacemakers is probably the
highest and finest ideal we can yearn for.
When we have become good dancers and we can show someone
else that they too can be adequate doing this dear deed,
then we will be a peacemaker .It will be a hidden miracle, a
nistar and it will no longer be hidden. It will be displayed
for everyone to view and mainly for us to be thankful that
we ignited a flame in someone else who may not have had the
thought to try.
Nistar miracle is surely something for us to adhere to
because then we will surely be a peacemaker and become a
dear child of God.
We then are at peace and we know that we accomplished
something special because we allowed our hopes to extend to
possibly a stranger and they were no longer strangers
because we did not hide this dance love and it became a
nistar, unhidden, alive and vibrant.
I heard this on a television show recently. May the road
rise up to meet you and the wind
always be at your back. May the sunshine warm your face and
the rainfall softly fall on the field. Till we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
We, the people we are right today in this new year of 2009
can be a nistar miracle, a peacemaker and make the road rise
up to meet folks who we try to encourage to ballroom dance
for their health, happiness and overall heavenly happenings.
We will be doing what we love-dancing and we will be
extending that love to others to at least try. Once they
attempt it, they will know that it is for them.
Life will change for them because they will be doing
something so different, so special and most of all so
rewarding. We will be the ones who get the dividend- we will
have the prize most coveted by all. We now will feel
absolutely that the road has risen to meet us and the
sunshine will have warmed our face. We will be the
peacemaker because we will have found our self.
Always keep on dancing.
You can email me at elitajerrydancing@verizon.net
March 2009
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