God in Everyday : Sometimes when you know that you know ….

Adam Braun recounting the very day the name “Pencil of Promise” just pops into his head clear as crystal from nowhere. At that moment he knew that he knew that he has to do it. 

It happened to Adam Braun. It happened to others as well. It happened to me one afternoon as I sat in my living room pondering whether to continue a small courier business started off as an Independent contractor for a transport company but was just not bringing enough money to cover basic costs ;  or call it quits before I invest more resources and energy into it. On the surface I should just cut loss and move on but I knew I wasn’t thru with it yet but didn’t know how to proceed. So as I close my eyes and quieten myself, a thought just pops into my head “why don’t you advertise on the online classified pages?” Without hesitation I did. I had learnt by then not to question these clear promptings and just do it ! However as I put in the advert, I was saying in my mind what name to call this service , I didn’t want to use my name as a business name. Even as I thought that question the answer came back “Zen Courier” and so a business was born. And within 5 minutes of the advt going live , a local business rang through my mobile, I just couldn’t believe it when she said the name of the business “Mother Care” !! It was as though a validation, a confirmation and reassurance from the Universe that all is Ok !!

As I stepped up to the podium, I took a long, deep breath. The confidence I’d gained on Semester at Sea led me to believe that I could wing anything, but it suddenly hit me that I’d only have one shot at this. I scanned the audience and saw my entire family. My parents. My siblings. My grandmothers. My cousins. My friends. My team. I looked into each of their eyes and felt the heat in my hands start to dissipate. One person, one thought, I told myself.

I began by telling the story of the boy who asked for the single pencil, then projected an image of the $25 that started the organization. Each of these set the context, but the next image was something I’d never before shown anyone. The large screen projected a handwritten page from my leatherbound journal. After a decade of writing in these journals, filling hundreds of pages, I read an entire page aloud for the first time. It described the night that the name Pencils of Promise entered my mind at the Philharmonic and the moment when the idea for the organization was born.

Sometimes you just know. With absolute conviction. The complete absence of doubt is so rare it generates a sense of excitement that’s so powerful it becomes shocking. . . . That name just appeared in my head, and I remember a hard closing of my eyes followed by an opening and a quick punch of breath. It literally knocked the wind out of me, left me searching for air, a tingling of excitement surging through my chest. Yes. With absolute conviction. Everything had changed.

People began to nod their heads and clap. They felt what I felt, that we were participating in something bigger than any one of us as individuals, and that we had the opportunity to do something remarkable together. I then showed the video of Nith and Nuth, so that every person in the room could connect with the children we were working to support. The groundwork had been laid, now we just had to follow through.