Dear Friends,

Through dozens of Retreats over the past 15 years that I have been teaching and living Womanheart, I have met and loved the countless women whose lives have transformed in these retreats. Through them, I have been privileged to learn the secret of eternal youth, the secret of living forever young.

I remember the first time I saw this miracle happen.

It was May of 1994 and we had taken a great leap of faith in holding our first outdoor retreat - under a big top tent pitched in a sandy desert gully on the grounds of a small bed and breakfast ranch in the mountains just north of Phoenix. Our group of 25 women slept crowded but comfortable in the ranch house's five guestrooms, with a few hardy souls sleeping outside in sleeping tents. Early in the morning we began our meditations, gathered under blankets in the cold desert air. Later, water and electrolyte drinks flowed copiously during the hot daytime hours filled with lectures, yoga and meditations. The ranch dogs and cats gathered on the outskirts of the tent, dozing off to the sounds of the sweet voices in meditation.

On the final day everyone was busy writing their Womanheart affirmation program. It wasn't easy - to write out and then speak into a tape recorder positive statements about things that might never have been easy to do or be or feel about yourself. The women gathered in groups of four or five, cheering each other on.

One woman, well into her sixties, was having a particularly difficult time at first trying to find something positive to say about herself. One of our staffers called me over and together we worked out one statement after another. Suddenly she poised, repeating one sentence, tears rolling down her face, and whispered, "I've never been able to say that before!" Her face was flushed with joy. She repeated the affirmation again and her face lit up even more. I hugged her and she squeezed me back.

At the start of the retreat she had confided in me that she didn't know if she could finish all four days as she had an advanced form of cancer - but she wanted to try. Her doctor-husband had warned her not to come, but she had come anyway. Something had told her it would be important to her.

Now here she was, going beyond her tears, beaming a smile brighter than the desert sun. "I'm saying these things," she cried out. "I can actually be this person." The paper she had written on shook in her hand and her voice rang with conviction. "I am this person!"

The others gathered around her as she recited her statements into the tape recorder and when she finished everyone broke out in cheers and applause.

At the closing ceremony that day, my husband reappeared after a very long secret journey into the city, presenting a special tape to us. He put it on and the words of an old song from Bob Dylan rang out - "Forever Young." From a polite distance, he had observed what was happening earlier and had gone to get something to celebrate our special lady. We all held hands in a big circle and sang the words. Every eye was riveted on her and no eye was dry. That day her tears of joy became ours.

Six months later her friend who had attended Womanheart with her wrote us that she had passed. The message she left us was that she had kept up playing her affirmation tape and she wanted us to know how happy she was. Her life had been forever changed since that day!

So too was mine. Over the years since, I have seen the precious jewels, the countless numbers of women transforming their lives through meditations, affirmations, and growth. Quite literally, they have become forever young. It is a magic moment when you return to the joy of the child in you. Bliss becomes very real. Life becomes most precious.

Those who awaken that in themselves, touch and inspire their families and countless others. And, in doing so, they are ageless, beautiful and divine.

I pray that each of you some day soon will so discover yourself and live forever young.

Bless you in all ways always,

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