A Boy and His Garden

"I put seeds in the soil. And then we get babies. Not like a baby in your belly but a baby flower." -Oliver, Age 6, on gardening 

Check out the April issue of the always amazing FamilyFun Magazine. "A Boy and his Garden" was written beautifully by Catherine Newman — who takes you in to the little green world of a six year old boy, Ollie. All the gardening was done by my son, Oliver. I had the easy part, the taking pictures part. 

Inspiration.

I'm not sure if I’m tired this morning because of the margaritas from Rosa Mexicana and Committee Boston last night and wine from the amazing McBride Sisters at the AdClub Women’s event yesterday OR if my exhaustion comes from the amazing female speakers whose inspirational words flooded my mind and heart yesterday at the Women’s Leadership Forum.

I’m still trying to process it all — from the young mountain climber Sasha DiGiulian, who climbed even though the dudes climbing next to her told her ’This is no place for a girl.’ (talk about climbing mountains!) to Reshma Saujani who began the non-profit and movement, Girls Who Code, striving to get more girls into STEM fields. From Kelli Carlin, daughter of George Carlin, telling us that if you don’t have your own truth, you don’t have your own power, to a local mother and nurse, Christine McSherry who not only saved her son, she saved thousands of other children who were dying from rare diseases in this country by never giving up. Unbelievable!! You’re tired just reading this right?!

And that was just who was on stage. There were 1200 amazing women in the room!! (And a small handful of brave men.) Not only was I lucky enough to hear these incredibly inspiring stories from the speakers, I got to spend the day connecting with amazing women right here in Boston: Amy Flanagan, Andrea Becker, DeMane Davis, Jane Hirschi, Rachel Houk-Seeger, Carol Lee Kelleher, Sue Kingsbury, Molly Scannell, Kathy Kiely, Ellen Lacey, Noreen Moross, Margie Sullivan, Julie Paquette, Michelle Coughlin, Kathleen Schiffman, Margaux Stunzi, Julianna Akuamoah and so, so many more. What a day!

I felt so lucky to be in that room and to have played a small part of the event by filming and photographing some of these incredible women. With my ad in the WLF program reading “Inspiration is contagious. Congratulations, you’re a carrier.” I was trying to speak to each individual person at the event, but I’m also speaking to you now. We are all carriers of inspiration. Small or big. Think about that for a little while. And I hope it makes you tired, too.

[ View the videos here: http://vimeo.com/kimlowe/videos ]