Need for nurturing. David Lipschitz letter to the Cape Times published Friday 13th January 2017

I called the letter: How to get rid of the fires and bring the rain

Photo from UnSplash: Morgan Sessions

Imagine growing up in an environment where you are told that everything is "common sense".

Imagine growing up in an environment where you are asked, "why don't you know that?"

Imagine you have a friend who says to you, "you should have known that!"

You feel insecure. You worry. You develop anxiety and maybe even become depressed.

There are so many depressed and anxious people in the world. Anxiety and burn-out are so prevalent that Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, has left the Huffington Post and started an online service called Thrive Global. Thriving is defined as prospering and flourishing.

When reading books about Einstein and other famous people, one finds a common thread. Einstein played with magnets and iron filings as a kid. When one moves a magnet through iron filings, the iron filing move around and create patterns. Einstein was fascinated by these patterns. Einstein's parents didn't tell him to go and play with his friends. They bought him more magnets and more iron filings! I have read so many more stories of people who are "doing well", who were given this special mentoring by their parents.

I am lucky to have this special mentoring in my relationship with my wife and with my peers and colleagues at work. We nurture each other and we become "better". Imagine how different the world could be if we would fix this part of our relationships in our families and with our friends and colleagues.

If we nurture each other and bring out the best in each other, even if someone's best isn't specifically interesting to us, or we think they could do better as an all-rounder, even though they are really good at a particular part of our (should be their) lives, then an opportunity opens to heal each other.

This healing energy will pervade our world. Our friends, our animals, other people, other animals and nature will feel this presence and these special energies, and the rain will come.

It might not happen overnight, but if we don't try, we won't know. So, today and every day, let's nurture (original text was: "let's fight the fires ...") and find the good things in each other, and let's bring the rain.