“Everyone has a choice. Even if you’re trained to hate, you can choose tolerance. You can choose empathy.” ― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice

It’s 12 : 31  PM on day 2088 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read Revelation 3: 5 , learn one new thing – “Concord grapes are one of only three fruits native to North America. The other two fruits are blueberries and cranberries.” (Dole.com) “The cranberry is one of just three fruits native to North America (along with Concord grapes and blueberries)” (Pittsburgh Magazine) – have breakfast and work on my  25 Smiles Campaign   –  Jim Mahar donated $26 (thanks SO MUCH  Jim your ongoing  support means the world to me  )  which brings my total raised to $5 800 only $450 more to raise before Jan 10 2017 (SO SO SO GRATEFUL to everyone who has supported this campaign so far 🙂 ) .

Yesterday I finished reading The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice by Zak Ebrahim it’s an inspiring story of a boy who was trained to hate who grew up to be a man who chooses peace and tolerance (I actually know Zak via Twitter he’s such a nice human always advocating peace and love it hurt my heart to know that nearly everyone he came into contact with as a child abused him in one way or another I suppose one has to experience hate and violence to know the true power of love and peace I’m SO PROUD of the human being Zak grew up to be).