My dear friend, Karen Mead, gave me Heart #808 for my 51st birthday last year, 2008, a bumpy year that followed 2 years of hell. My business, my step-dad and my mother all died in 2006 and what ensued was as painful as it has been freeing.

I never realized that my mother was my rock, my magnetic true north, until she died and there was no north, nowhere for my compass to settle. So I held on for dear life as the seas of loss and grief, and the accompanying paralyzing fear, beat me mercilessly. I thank God for Karen and her quick smile and easy grace, for accepting me with all my foibles, and for being here with me on this wild, and amazing, journey of self-unfoldment.

Thank you, Karen, for giving me this heart and, even more, your friendship to hold on to while I found my own magnetic north, lying within me where it has always been. Thank you for being you and for loving me back to life.

I now pass it on to Kelly Towry, on her 50th. Synchronicity brought us together, no accident, at a time when I was struggling under the bonds of the life I'd created. An office, a center, a relationship, all had been slowly crippling me.

Kelly showed up in my life and offered a way out. Just like that. Here ya' go.

So here, Kelly, my helicopter in the flood, is Heart #808. May it remind you of the beauty and promise life holds as you dance in to your 50th year. Happy Birthday, Dear Friend! Love, Olivia