To all my wonderful friends…

To the amazing person that you are, on this day I want you to know:

You are one-of-a-kind – like no other being that has ever been or ever will be – and that’s something to celebrate, for the world is a different place because of you.

Did you know that your smile can change a day and your love can change a life?

In fact, every life you come in contact with you leave changed forever. The change may be big or it may be small, but their life will always be different because of you – just like mine has.

Never underestimate the little things in life – their effect is far greater than you even suspect.

You are more powerful than you know, more loved than you feel, and of more value to others than you can guess.

Life is too short for self-pity and too long for blame.

Always remember that you are the source of love in your life, for love is who you truly are.

Regardless of whoever you’ve chosen to be in the past, you can always choose to be something completely new in this moment.

And most importantly, you do not need to be, do or have a single other thing in order to be perfect – not even if it’s being happy, doing what you love or having your dream life – for you are perfect right now, just as you are.

Whether I’ve known you a day or a lifetime, whether I know you a little or a lot, whether we’ve met in person or online, I want you to know my life is richer for you being in it. And I know there are many, many others who feel the same.

Thank you for being you!

Love, Lisa

PS As well as giving you this letter I wanted to share with you why I wrote it…

I came to write this letter due to the underwhelming (to my ego) number of friends who chose to become a fan of my new “Transforming the Lives of Thousands” page on Facebook, featuring a cause that means a huge amount to me.

The cynical part of me asked, “Do people just not care about others anymore?” But what my ego was really wondering was, “Do people just not care about me!?”

After spending a bit of time with how I was feeling, letting go of my initial ego response and becoming grateful for the people who did become fans, I started to wonder, “Maybe they just don’t get what their support means to me? Maybe they just don’t get what they mean to me? Maybe they just don’t get the difference they can and do make in the world?” (yeah, just like I don’t!)

Yes, maybe you don’t know that even a tiny show of support, or just a few words of encouragement, means so much to me…most probably because I’ve not told you!

And so I decided to write you this letter, so maybe you can start to get some idea of the value you are, not only to me, but to all the people in your life.

And just to let you in on a little secret, sending this message out to everyone scares the crap out of me!

Like many people, I have that little voice in the back of my head that says things like, “What if they think it’s crap? What if they think I’m crap? What if they don’t value me? What if what if what if…??”

There’s most definitely a part of me that wants to pick and choose who I send it to, not due to their value to me, but because I want to only send it to the “safe” people I feel will appreciate it and not reject it/me…(does that sound at all familiar??)

But yesterday was the anniversary of my friend Greg dieing, and this afternoon I’ve felt it quite keenly.

I remember how it felt the week after he died, regretting with every fibre of my being having been too scared over the previous 2 months to just give him a call.

And I remember how obvious it was to me that week that the fear didn’t matter at all – that what mattered was he’d died without having the faintest idea of his value to me.

I also remember sitting at his wake thinking how ridiculous it is we wait until someone’s died to say just how wonderful they are to us.

That’s not something I want to happen again, which is why I’ve sent you this letter.

I know I’m still not as good at it as I could be, and maybe there’s times I’ve not supported you as much as you’d like.

You see the stupid thing is, even with that memory, I’m still really scared to let people know I care. I guess that’s what it is to be human.