When I was a child I would bite my nails. One day when I was about ten years old, my dad looked down at my hands and said to me, “Your hands are too pretty to be doing that to them.” From that moment on I never bit my nails again. I didn’t want to disappoint my dad, but mostly I wanted to see what he saw, pretty hands…

My first opportunity to find beauty is with the events in Haiti. I don’t wish to simplify or ever diminish what is happening there. It is devastating. There are no words to describe the pain and suffering that they are experiencing right now. It is difficult for me to watch any of it on the news because it is so very painful…