Maya. The word in Arabic means water. Somewhere in the Caribbean during this mid-day as I work at my desk here in Alexandria, Egypt, looking out upon the Mediterranean Sea, there on the other side of the world is a little girl named Maya. She is sketching her thoughts for a mural design that she wants to do with orphans in a village in Haiti. Maya is on board the yacht Tranquility headed to Haiti.
In another location, not too far from the Florida coast where the Tranquility lifted anchor and headed across the seas, is another young lady whose name is Ally who is also busy sketching her ideas and thoughts onto Art Miles Shoes of Hope and how to get more, do more, send more, bring more. She traveled around the world this past summer creating and delivering shoes to orphans in yet another part of the world in the Philippines. (It was there she met another water bound family in Hong Kong, the Begbie family who collect and distribute barely used and new goods to people in need all over the world).
Still yet, in the glamorous city of Los Angeles, another girl actress/activist by the name of Tanna Frederick, will be running this weekend in support of a mental hospital in mid America’s state of Iowa. She prepares for the Boston Marathon and later this summer, for the Save Our Surf Marathon, where she and other surfing celebrities are doing something that is also involving the treasured commodity we all need to survive … WATER.
The girls don’t know each other, but they have much in common. All of them are part of the Art Miles Mural Project and AMMP Shoes of Hope. All are making or have made journeys to deliver Art Miles Shoes of Hope or creating and sharing murals that tell a story that everyone in the world needs to pay attention to.
Both Ally and Maya are very young and both have incredible parents who are teaching them about how life can be when love and kindness are in your heart. Both sets of parents are devoted to the idea of family. Maybe that’s why Maya’s family ship is named “Tranquility.” Could it be that Gandhi’s words, Peace Begins With Me, also has application to a vessel that travels on the high seas delivering much needed medical, food items, and energy equipment to survivors and orphans of Haiti’s disastrous earthquakes?
And for Tanna, not forgetting those who need support to be ensured of their rightful place in society, she is like a real live mermaid with long flowing curly red hair and a giant smile that radiates and lights up the seas you can find her surfing on, or the pavement wherever she runs.
Tears fill my eyes as I imagine the beginnings of this latest AMMP Shoes of Hope journey … the boundless energy and enthusiasm of Jaci Feinstein and the Volunteer San Diego staff…the employees of Bridgepoint Education and their incredible generosity of donating 1,400 pairs of shoes, and the students in my beloved California from the Vista Magnet Middle School who painted, with love, the other shoes that were shipped, along with the others, to Miami and then loaded onto the Tranquility, where Maya and her family are at sea en route at this very moment. I think of Ally who yearned to be there during the arrival and pulling anchor time when the Murray’s left port, and instead was presenting her speech about Art Miles Shoes of Hope in a contest there in Florida.
I think of her joy in sharing her winning results of the speech competition and of Maya sketching a mural design, and I smile, drying my emotional tears knowing that these young girls and their families are teaching all of us how to “walk on water.” I know that because of people like them, the children, the parents, and so many other good people who made this happen, including the great work of my dear friend, Dr. Carolle Jean-Murat, my grandchildren indeed, have a lot of hope for a brighter future.
And for Tanna, in training and hopefully sleeping soundly (3:48 a.m. LA time), in preparation for the run tomorrow … I know that all three of you have shown that you can not only walk, but run on water!