Alice Herz Sommer: "Everything is a Present"
27 Jun 2013

A 12-minute video about 108-year old Alice Herz Sommer. She is a skilled pianist, a mother who raised her child through the Holocaust, and a cancer survivor. Her style of talking made me giggle many times :) She lives by herself in a tiny London flat and practices piano three hours a day. Key themes in her life are music, thankfulness and optimism.

Memorable quotes from the video

"I look where it is good. I know about the bad but I look at the good thing." :)

"Never hate. We are all sometimes good, sometimes bad."

"The worst thing in life is boredom. When people dont know what to do with themselves, they are very very poor."

"Complaining does not change people. When they complain — bla bla bla — nothing changes!"

"Be thankful. Thankful for everything.. seeing the sun.. seeing the smile.. a nice word of somebody. Everything is a present. I learnt to be thankful for everything."

One of the key things for her survival is music. "I learnt Bach by heart. My doctor said, 'this is better than a hundred pills' because I learnt Bash by heart!"

"Smiling helps a lot." :)

"Hatred eats the soul of the hater, not the hated."

Links: KarmaTube videoYouTube videoA Century of Wisdom (a book written about her life).

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