When I wrote my book, Glad No Matter What, I had a mentor for that book. 

It usually comes in the form of another book, and in this case, it was a book that came in the mail called The Water Colored Cat. 

It was this beautifull full-color children’s book with a black cat on the front, and it was written by a woman named Shelley Micam and illustrated by Peggy Chang. 

Shelley wrote to me and said, “You might remember me I asked you to endorse my book twelve years ago, and this is the book that my best friend Peggy and I wrote it and she did the art for it. And, I knew you would love it, and I wanted to send it to you. And, I also wanted to tell you that Peggy died shortly after this book was completed. Peggy died of “ALS”, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. “

When Peggy started manifesting symptoms of the disease,  Shelley said, “Well, I want to do something for you.” So, she formed something called, “Peg’s Legs.” 

Over two hundred and fifty people joined, and their mission and their intention were to provide Peggy a life that she couldn’t have without the help of all these people.

They took Peggy on boat rides, to bonfires with all of her supplies and so much more. She had this magnificent life, and they set her up with a computer so she could paint by blinking her eyes. She began creating these incredible paintings.  About a year before she died she mentioned she had a vision of doing a painting of a man named, “Father Damien, who lived in Hawaii and was going to be canonized by the Catholic Church as a Saint. 

She then created this enormous and luminous painting of Father Damien. Before Peggy died, she said to Shelley, “My dream is to present this painting to the Pope”. That she was Catholic, and that she wanted the Pope to have this painting. 

After Peggy had died,  Shelley came to my  Writer’s Conference in Hawaii where I Micro Movement workshop. I had everyone fill out their own Micro Movement wheels, and then I brought twelve people up to the stage to share the center of their wheel, and their Micro Movement with the audience, and Shelley was one of the 12 people chosen. 

She said, “My creative dream is to present my friend Peggy’s painting to the Pope.” 

And, I said “So, what’s your Micro Movement”?  

And she said “Coming up here onto the stage”, 

And I said, “Well that was a good one, you’ve done it! What’s the next one?

She answered “To find someone who can help us get to Rome, and meet the Pope, and give him Peggy’s painting” 

So, I then asked the audience: “Who can help Shelley?”

A man raised his hand and said, “I work for American Airlines, and we would like to fly you and two students to Rome”

Another person came forward and said, “I can provide lodging in Rome.” 

A woman then came forward and said, “I can arrange a private audience with the Pope”. 

Within five minutes, these MicroMOVEment Miracles happened.

And Shelley went to Rome with two students and presented this painting to the Pope. 

I just love this story so much. Later on, Shelley presented me with the  incredible photographs of the whole incident. Peggy’s spirit MORE than lives on, and we found out that later that Peggy was a huge SARK fan, and she had all “How To Be An Artist” posters in her studio. She would give a poster to everyone who came over, and I never knew that.