Last week was an emotional journey. As our hearts broke watching the news of the most inconceivable Isis attacks in Paris, I found a cathartic relief and rejoiced at the celebration and fundraiser for the Rwanda Girl’s Initiative, a school co-founded by one of my best girlfriends, Shal Foster. http://rwandagirlsinitiative.org/home/index
Watching these beautiful, brilliant, eloquent young women from Rwanda sit on a panel and discuss how they are now attending prestigious colleges such as Harvard, made me think of the quote, ‘YOU HAVE NEVER REALLY LIVED UNTIL YOU DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN NEVER REPAY YOU.”

If you don’t have financial means, there is ALWAYS something you can give. ALWAYS. During this holiday season, we are all swamped, but taking the time to volunteer, tutor, donate old clothes, forego that cup of coffee and buy an extra can goods and put in the donation bin at your local grocery store can change a life.

This act of paying it forward is so poignantly depicted in one of my favorite movies by the same title. For those who have not seen Pay it Forward, please do yourself a favor and check it out. When Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) begins seventh grade in Las Vegas, Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor’s plan is a charitable program based on the networking of good deeds. He calls his plan “Pay It Forward”, which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for three others rather than paying the favor back. However, it needs to be a major favor that the recipient cannot complete themselves.

Look Around…Pay Attention and Pay it Forward for Paris, for Peace. Pay it Forward Period….