“The poet Nikita Gill wrote: ‘If you have been brutally broken, but still have the courage to be gentle to others, then you deserve a love deeper than the ocean itself.’ I have always believed in kindness.

Once, when I was in South Africa, I had a very bad accident, injuring my spine. Sometimes the pain was so bad that it made it difficult to walk, or even think. I was in the African bush, in a bungalow at the Royal Malewane, in Greater Kruger National Park, and an elephant started following me everywhere, as if he were feeling my pain, as if he were trying to protect me. At night, I saw his eyes looking at me. People asked me if I was scared, but I felt completely safe when he was close to me. Sometimes he just looked at me. At other times, he would break a branch off of a tree and eat the leaves for his mid-morning snack. Sometimes he would try to get my attention in a funny, strangely ‘shy,’ and delicate way.

The African people at the lodge told me that I was an elephant whisperer. At the same time, a strong connection to nature was making me stronger. Maybe sensing that it was my last day there, the elephant brought some of his ‘family’ of female elephants and baby elephants to meet me. At that moment, in the bush, among a group of elephants, I felt that, one day, I would heal and I would return. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Deborah Calmeyer, creative entrepreneur and ‘lover of storytelling,’ founder of Roar Africa, for making my trip to South Africa possible.”