April 17, 2013

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I got my tenth vaccine in three weeks today and I’m packing for my trip to Ethiopia with charity: water and Soma Water to meet the beneficiaries of clean water. More than 800 million people on the planet drink water that’s likely to make them sick. That’s 1 in 9 of us.

When I learned I’d be going on this trip I realized I knew very little about Ethiopia. As a kid, I didn’t even know if I’d ever see California, let alone this country in Africa. The first thing that popped into my mind was Michael Jackson’s song Man in the Mirror and the music video. Having never really put much thought into the true meaning of the song, For the first time, I read through the lyrics and listened louder. I realized how much more the already powerful message is.

As I try to figure out how to turn on my out of office auto email response for the first time in four years (cheers to Digital Royalty! We just celebrated our 4th b-day.), I realize I’m feeling anxious.

The anxiety has nothing to do with the (semi) digital detox I’m about to experience. It’s because I know I’m about to learn something epic about life, the world and the woman in the mirror (myself) but I’m not sure what that will be. It’s a new kind of unknown.

That said, I’d like company in this adventure and hopefully we can learn together. I’d love for you to join me and I’ll share as much as I can day-by-day, play-by-play (if the African Wi-Fi powers that be decide to play along. Otherwise, I’ll share when I return.) Follow along here on my blog as well as the #SomaThrive thread. You can also follow me on Twitter (and Vine), Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

It’s okay that we don’t know what the future holds. Maybe our true mission is to figure out more about the man in the mirror as the reflection changes.



Thank you to Soma Water and charity: water for allowing this trip to take place. This video explains more about the trip:

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