LET’S CELEBRATE & ENCOURAGE THE HERO IN EACH OTHER THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
My “Holiday Hope” this season is that people see and experience just how incredible they really are! We are all heroes full of possibility, made of something so powerful, so magical that we really can be, do, or have anything!
During Thanksgiving break, my “Holiday Hope” was ignited! We went to the beautiful island of Hawaii for my son to see the University and for me to do a reading at the incredible, Waikiki Elementary School. While we were on the island, I had the honor to meet a stranger who will forever be A HERO in my heart.
We took our kid’s zip lining through The North Shore of Oahu. We were making small talk with the other tourist, and a woman from California with her twin boys said, “Your book DREAM BIG is one of our favorites.” I was elated!
There is no greater gift to receive as an author, but the truly thrilling part for me was hearing her story. She has truly lived the embodiment of what DREAM BIG means:
She was born in Nigeria. Her father died when she was five, so her mom moved her to the United States. In elementary school when a teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, her response was a doctor. The teacher told her she might come up with a more realistic ambition. The next day the woman’s mother set up a meeting for them to sit down with her teacher, and her mom explained very kindly that “MY DAUGHTER CAN DO ANYTHING SHE PUTS HER MIND, HEART, AND BELIEVE TO!”
The woman’s mother died when she was fifteen. The woman was alone, left to raise herself. But the woman said, “The belief that I CAN DO ANYTHING was a seed my mom nourished deep within me. I put myself through college, Stanford, and Medical School. I am now a doctor with a thriving private practice in spite of all the naysayers along the way that said I could never do these things.” Hearing her story, then seeing the fantastic life she built for herself full of love, fun, friends, and family; it will always be a heroic inspiration for me. When I start to think I can’t, or someone tells me I can’t, I know the “I CAN DO ANYTHING” stardust seed is also planted deep within me.
So let’s have some fun making memories this holiday by taking the time to nourish the stardust seed of “I CAN DO ANYTHING” in others. The Termites in DREAM BIG chose to encourage us by writing “U K-N” on their backs—To say what? They also wrote on the side of their castle “B E U — To say “Smile and be you!”
There are more codes and riddles on my website.
Or come up with your own to help encourage a fantastic life that nourishes the possibility in all of our lives, filling it with love, fun, friends, and family! My granddaughters and I had a blast creating one for the inside flap of my book. We may have taken it to an extreme, but it is a priceless memory that I will always hold dear. Our message to you in the photo is, “BELIEVE ‘YOU CAN’! SMILE, ‘BE YOU’ & JUMP FOR JOY AS YOU DO!”
The stardust seed in each of our hearts is just waiting to be lit! So this holiday lets have fun living a life that radiates what it means to DREAM BIG and encourage others too. The woman I met in Hawaii will forever motivate me to continue to believe in myself and my dreams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6xLYt265ZM&feature=youtu.be
