There are a lot of people who’ve inspired me over the last couple of decades: Jean Houston who first planted the idea of being a social artist in my mind; Lynne Twist who gave me a fundraising lesson by phone, after Jean suggested it. Little did I know then how much those two women would still be influencing me more than 20 years later, and that I would become an ardent supporter of the Pachamama Alliance and the work of Awakening the Dreamer.
Marianne Williamson started to influence my thinking during the 90′s when I first read “A Woman’s Worth.” Food for a lot of (at the time unsettling) thought. In 2004 I followed her to Washington, D.C. to learn how to lobby with Love, for Peace. A Department of Peace.
Then along came John. Amazon John. Amazon John Easterling that is. He influenced me tremendously as a social entrepreneur who was making a real difference to the people of the Amazon rainforest by creating an enterprise for them to share their healing plants with the people of the North, for the forest itself through the Amazon Herb Company’s support of the Aceer Foundation, and through those of us who consumed the products they marketed here for health. I was blessed to discover the company in 2001 and to illustrate a small book for them on the healing properties of the plants they used. 
Working on those illustrations, knowing they would be part of a circulating stream benefit really moved me beyond words. I am extremely grateful for the gifts I’ve been given – my long standing relationship with the plant kingdom as one of its spokespeople, my skill as an artist to portray their messages, and for to the mentors who helped to show me a path I could walk upon, as a person who can make a difference in this world by applying the experiences and gifts of a lifetime for something much bigger than I would dare to dream, by myself.
What are your gifts? What’s your big dream? Wake it up – it’s time to live it.
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