Doing Different, to Make a Difference

My Instagram and Facebook feeds are filled with pictures of me perfectly posed in dreamy locations all around the world. But of course, those are just the highlights. My life isn’t perfect, and I struggle daily. Behind the scenes and beyond the screen I face many of the same challenges you do: paying the bills; managing my relationship with my spouse; and trying to achieve that elusive work/life balance.

Nevertheless, I have a roof over my head; clothes on my back; enough money to pay the electricity bill; and family and friends who love and support me unconditionally.

And I recognize that, because of this, I’m very lucky.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the homeless woman I used to pass on my morning runs when I first moved to Miami four years ago. In those pre-dawn hours, she’d be huddled in a doorway. And sometimes I’d see her during the day, shuffling along the street or sitting at a nearby bus stop, wearing the same tattered black hoodie, regardless of the weather. And then, suddenly, about a year ago, she simple wasn’t there anymore. I wondered if she’d found another neighborhood. “Where do you think she is now?” I asked my husband. I hoped she’d got help and was off the streets. I still don’t know. But I hoped.

This holiday season, however, I’m resolving to do more than just hope. This year I’m supporting Miami’s Lotus House and their efforts to provide shelter, food, clothing and healing services to homeless women and children.

Will you join me in doing different, to make a difference? Wherever in the world you are, I encourage you to find a worthy charity and to use your voice and your time to help them. Most of us have so many blessings. Let’s use them to volunteer and to serve the people in our communities who need it most, in any way we can. Together, let’s help restore hope and dignity, adding our light to the sum of light for a better world for all.

And if you can, please consider a donation to my community charity, Lotus House. Click here to help right now. Because helping is better than hoping.

Thank you,