@Vitolo - as you can see, I'm relatively new to this forum.
I will not presume an intimacy or friendship that we don't have. But we certainly, all of us, share a fellowship.
I have just read this thread from start to finish and, while I could go on and on about the Gestapo tactics used against you and your wife, my true sentiment at this moment is joy that the two of you survived this experience reasonably unscathed and that it had a fairly happy ending.
I'm so glad you two are on your feet and wish you nothing but joy and health going forward for all of your days.
It would appear that you are a very admirable man and your actions and involvements bring to mind one of my favorite passages by Kahil Gibran on the subject of giving:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have--and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
I think you are a myrtle tree among humans, Vitolo, and there is nothing higher to aspire.
Thank you.
P.S. - oh, and wonderful guidance for those that also receive:
And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.
