Share your story with us—the trials, the effort, the setbacks, the wins. This page is waiting for your experience. It will help others.
Try a different way? Someone did, for us, for Ombre e Luci. At the medical ward of Gissi Hospital in Chieti, a group of people who knew us—who understood, or sensed, that our magazine's budget always balances on a knife's edge, dependent on everyone's good will—they thought of something new for us. A different approach.
These people decided that instead of exchanging Christmas gifts this year, they would collect money for "Ombre e Luci." So there were no wrapped packages among them. Instead, each person gave what they felt called to give, and in doing so expressed their solidarity, their esteem, and their wish that Ombre e Luci would keep publishing and reach all of its readers. They collected a substantial sum—nearly seven hundred thousand lire.
We picture the medical ward at Gissi Hospital as orderly and efficient, with a skilled and gentle head nurse, doctors and nursing staff attentive to their patients' needs, patients full of trust in those caring for them. And we see all of them thinking of the many families across Italy raising disabled children, families working hard each day to find peace and the hope that they can give their son or daughter the greatest help possible. How did all this come about? Giacomo, a young man who despite his difficulties gives us considerable help in editing Ombre e Luci, traveled to the Holy Land with his parents last summer. He was part of a close-knit group, and Giacomo is the sort of person who makes friends easily, who wins people over quickly. He told them about his work at Ombre e Luci. When he returned to Rome, he sent the magazine to some friends from the trip. One of them was the head nurse from Gissi Hospital's medical ward.
We are infinitely grateful for this gift—as we are for all who support our magazine: readers, contributors, and donors. As we are for those who, for many years, have generously offered us the apartment where we do our work, on Via Bessarione, free of charge.
All of this springs from our friends' refusal to settle into a dull, predictable routine—their willingness to embrace the new, to stay open to others, to try different things, to make other attempts, to take other roads. This is a profound lesson for all of us, and it is a spiritual richness that we receive with gratitude and pass on to our readers.
- The Editorial Staff, 1994
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