Mattie J. T. Stepanek lived and died a child, but he had the spirit of a giant. Affected by a rare and fatal neuromuscular disease, Mattie lived almost fourteen years but in that time became a poet, best-selling author, peace activist, and a prominent voice for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.Continue
Mattie J. T. Stepanek lived and died a child, but he had the spirit of a giant. Affected by a rare and fatal neuromuscular disease, Mattie lived almost fourteen years but in that time became a poet, best-selling author, peace activist, and a prominent voice for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Before his death in June 2004, his five volumes of Heartsongs poetry sold more than a million copies.
Reflections of a Peacemaker: A Portrait Through Heartsongs is the final collection of Heartsongs that Mattie was working on when he died. It includes the last poem Mattie penned along with a special collection of unpublished poetry, photographs, and artwork spanning the decade from when he began writing Heartsongs at age three. Culled from the thousands of poems, essays, and journal entries Mattie left behind, the entries in Reflections of a Peacemaker create a portrait of Mattie in his own words. In these poems he explores disability, despair, and death but also the gifts he finds in nature, prayer, peace, and his belief in something "bigger and better than the here and now." The poems are grouped by theme such as playful, stormy, sacred, and final Heartsongs, with each section introduced by a personal tribute from the likes of Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, and former President Jimmy Carter.
In the words of Mattie's mother, Jeni Stepanek, who is publishing Reflections of a Peacemaker at her son's request, "In reading these poems we enter Mattie's world and gain insight through a child who somehow balanced pain and fear with optimism and faith."
A portion of the proceeds of Reflections of a Peacemaker will be donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Mattie Fund for medical research to help find treatments and cures for childhood neuromuscular diseases.
Maple Chan 
For Our World
Billy Gilman, the singer, has taken the poems of Mattie Stepanek and set them to music. Here is the one I love most: For Our World.
We need to stop, just stop
Stop for a moment
Before anybody says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else
We need to be silents, just silen ... (continue)
Billy Gilman, the singer, has taken the poems of Mattie Stepanek and set them to music. Here is the one I love most: For Our World.
We need to stop, just stop
Stop for a moment
Before anybody says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else
We need to be silents, just silent
Silent for a moment
Before we forever lose the blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts
We need to notice, just notice
Notice for a moment
Before the future slips away
into ashes and dust of humility
Stop, be silent, and notice
In so many ways, we are the same
Our differences are unique
treasures
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept
We need to be, just be
Be for a moment
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting
Like children and lambs
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful
And now, let us pray
Differently, yet together
Before there is no earth, no life
No chance for peace
Peace for our world... our world.
In this book "Reflection of a Peacemaker", you can find many more of the poems of this incredibly mature, full of wisdom and love, peacemaker - Mattie Stepanek.
Mattie, I love you and I'll forever remember you!
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