Friday, May 20, 2011

Prophet of Peace

Mattie Stepanek, prophet, poet, creator of Heartsongs, messenger of peace,  succumbed to a rare form of muscular dystrophy at thirteen, but he made every day of his life count by writing and speaking his message of hope.

Mattie sang his heartsongs
of love and joy.
He sang
for all of us.
Every day,
he lived his message,
which was:
Peace is Possible.

"When I die,"
he said,
"I want to be
a child in Heaven.....
a hero.......
I want to make
a difference there,
just like
I did
on earth."

Mattie was
the embodiment
of love.
He brought
his knowing
from the great beyond,
to which he has returned.
Millions were
touched
by his journey
of love.

Mattie's last sentence
in this world,
a world where
he needed an
oxygen tank
to survive, was:
"Choose to inhale.
Do not breathe
simply to exist."
The last word
he ever said was:
"Yes."

He had died many times,
he had seen Heaven,
and came back
because
he still had
work to do.

As he was dying,
his one question was:
"Did I do
enough?"

Through his books,
and television clips,
he still
can make us cry.
Yet also smile,
because Mattie,
pint-sized prophet
with a mighty heart,
when it came
to living,
Mattie
 showed us how.

10 comments:

  1. This is such a touching memorial, Sherry. I would love you to link it to the Man for All Seasons challenge. Little Mattie is a role model for all men of the present age, don't you think?

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  2. huh, thank you, Sherry. now i gotta go find out about Mattie and his story. breathe, indeed.

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  3. An amazing and wonderful tribute, Sherry.

    Pamela

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  4. I'd seen Mattie on TV a few times. So sad that he had to leave this earth so young. A nice tribute!

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  5. Damn...INHALE life ! There was real wisdom in that.

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  6. This is a beautiful tribute, Sherry. Thank you for sharing Mattie's story with us.

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  7. Thank you for this! I have a link to Mattie's site on my Blog and feel honored to have seen a couple of his interviews on TV when he was still here. Such a young person but with an amazing spirit of one much wiser than his years.

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  8. A great man has passed.

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