Greetings Women of the World,

Currently, I am in the rainy Berkshires at the Kripalu Retreat Center, but recently, I was in sunny Santa Barbara for a week on spring break with my family -- we used to live there and we were visiting an old friend. One morning I got to hear a story from my friend Howard Schiffer, founder of Vitamin Angel, an organization that arranges critical nutritional supplements to people around the world -- from Hurricane Katrina survivors to children in the worst slums in the world.

Below you will read more about Howard's amazing work, but I also want to take a moment to acknowledge yours. It's like that country song, "She's Somebody's Hero," where your work may not make the news, may not win a Nobel Peace Prize, and may be seemingly endless, but You Definitely Matter! And stories like the one below are meant to encourage you, inspire you to continue, and to KNOW that every moment contains an opportunity to choose peace. If more of us did that more often, imagine what the world would be like!

Your Mirror,

P.S. You only have 2 days left to register for one of the most daring and treasured creative adventures of all -- the April 29th Creativity Day Spa. Take care of yourself!

P.S.S. I was recently interviewed about creativity by the Puget Sound Business Journal, check it out here.

Self-Care Minder

Howard Schiffer founded VitaminAngel.com, but before you visit the website, read this story that Howard told me about Dr. Nancy Harris who has spent the last 15 years of her life helping the children of the most remote and impoverished areas of Tibet. Several years back, just as she was finishing three days of heart numbing work in a village, a father came staggering into the tent carrying his seemingly brain-dead 4-year-old boy. Dr. Harris couldn't do a thing. She sat there with the people of the village waiting and wondered if all her years of training were useless. She was sure the boy suffered from irreversible condition he had been born with. The interpreter relayed that the boy had always been lifeless, drooling, and unable to feed himself.

The father pleaded. The villagers waited. Dr. Harris looked around the tent in desperation and noticed a woman in the corner, working her pink prayer beads. As the woman worked the beads, the doctor was reminded of the little pink multi-vitamins she had among her supplies. Sure she was grasping at straws, she retrieved the vitamins and counted out 365 for the father to give to his son daily, crushed in his food.

When Dr. Harris returned to the village 14 months later, she once again spent three days setting bones and dressing wounds. At the end of the day, packing up, a little boy approached her. He pulled out a white scarf and gently laid it on the doctor's knees -- a sign of great respect. He gave a little speech of thanks and did a lively traditional dance. When Dr. Harris responded with a simple thank you, the translator frowned and said, "Don't you know who this is?" It was then Dr. Harris noticed the boy's father and she realized who the child was. Yes, the simple addition of the multi-vitamins in this child's life had reversed his condition and restored him to health.

One multi-vitamin a day.

I know we are in this search together to find a way to make a difference and live our passions and Howard has figured out a way to do that. As I stumble and weave through finding my next vision for my work, I often despair and stories like Dr. Harris keep me going. One vitamin at a time.

Comfort Wishes
That you and I keep sharing our vitamins.
What can't you help but do that offers nourishment and nutrition to your world?
Molly and the Bad Princess's cleaned and painted and organized the house of their coach.
Janice copied Mary Oliver poems and tied them to trees in the park.
Jim invited a grumpy co-worker to lunch (took ten invites before he accepted and he still never said more than a few words -- we don't always get to know or see if our vitamins bring them back to life; that doesn't mean we stop giving.)
One vitamin at a time.