The Wealthy Soul Newsletter - 9/24/05

Dear Wealthy Soul Subscribers,

Michael Norwood here with an Urgent Bulletin.

I'm going to share with you a story of how Katrina has impacted
me personally.

Then I'm going to provide you with a unique way for you to help
many individual survivors without moving from where you're
sitting.

With greatest respect for all those suffering - and even more so
with the additional anguish heaped on by Hurricane Rita - my
story nevertheless starts off humorously.

Here goes . . .

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Letter to a Katrina Survivor

by Michael R. Norwood, D.C., C.C.N.

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When I was 18, I came close to starving to death.

All right, I may be exaggerating. But it was the first time I was
living away from my parents as a freshman chiropractic student
near Atlanta, Georgia.

And the only thing I knew how to cook was rice and beans, which I
would boil together, add salt, and half gagging, literally force
down twice a day.

I would eat the slop outside on my second story apartment stoop.

This way - if you can excuse me for being graphic - when I could
no longer take it, I had a place to spit out the last mouthful
onto the bushes below.

One day while quite literally choking there, I noticed an
Asian student walking into the apartment across the way. In a blatant
case of racial profiling, I said to myself, "I bet that guy can
cook!"

And what do you know, everyday hence, he'd go walking below my
perch, carrying a grocery bag with wonderfully looking exotic
vegetables and spices overflowing the top.

I tracked his movements with the eye of a lean wolf, waiting for
the right moment to make my move.

I don't remember the moment I finally introduced myself to the
young Asian named Antoine, but I'll never forget how abruptly my
life changed afterward.

I went from being half-starved on prison gruel, to suddenly
finding myself feasting twice a day on lavish Vietnamese cuisine.
Tantalizing soups, hot chili dishes, sautéed fish (head and eyes
still intact!) would be laid out before me and Antoine's two
lucky roommates both at lunch and dinnertime.

Within two weeks, I regained the 10 pounds I had lost since
moving from under my parents wings a short time earlier.

Much more than this, despite my less-than-admirable motives for
introducing myself to the Asian student, I quickly formed a bond
with him that has lasted nearly thirty years.

Antoine not only fit my stereotype of all Asians being good
cooks, he also fit another stereotype: that all Asians are wise.

This image came from my years growing up watching David Carradine
play a Shaolin priest in the 70s hit television series "Kung Fu."

And indeed, my new friend had a depth unlike anyone I had ever
met. I would learn his spirituality had been cultured in his
teens when he was dislocated to France and later to the U.S. to
escape the conflict in Vietnam.

Having lost my sister to cancer just two years prior to meeting
Antoine when I was sixteen, I felt a great kindredness of spirit
with him.

Over the years, his wise counsel would become a major part of who
I am.

His sage words to me when I was in my early thirties and coping
with my father's two-year slow demise from cancer allowed me to
find the depth from my teens I thought I had lost.

In my book, "The 9 Insights of the Wealthy Soul" I portray the
multitude of conversations I had with Antoine and all he would
reveal for me.

Now, years later, another major event has imposed itself on our
friendship.

Katrina.

For five agonizing days after the devastating hurricane, I had no
word from my friend nor his family.

After we graduated from chiropractic school, Antoine eventually
settled in practice in New Orleans, where he has been with his
family for the past 22 years.

Nearly a week after Katrina, I finally located him in Houston.
Though safe, his life will never be the same.

This coming week I will share with you a letter I wrote to my
friend, who, along with millions of others, has lost his home,
his work, his pets and his entire way of life.

With Antoine's permission, I share this letter with you in hopes
it will give some comfort to you and anyone you know who may have
been directly or indirectly affected by Katrina's devastation,
which we are all now only too familiar with.

Meanwhile, let me ask you to go to a new website I have created,
LettersToKatrinaSurvivors.com . Once there, I ask you to write a letter to a Katrina Survivor as if you are writing to your own friend.

Indeed, every survivor IS.

When the preciousness of life is dramatically shown to us, and we
all realize how vulnerable each of us are, it has a way of
vanishing all our differences.

We are all, in fact, brothers and sisters.

So write a letter to a Katrina Survivor addressing it "Dear
Friend" or "Dear Brother and Sister."

Share your feelings of what it is like seeing all they have gone
through.

Yet give them all your hope and encouragement and light, as well
as sharing experiences of triumphing over your own major
challenges.

Allow your letter to give them permission to grieve, yet, at the
same time, provide the light that will nurture them to slowly
heal and feel a special grace.

Your letter will be read by thousands of survivors. I will see to
it.

Reach out and touch their souls now.

Pass this article onto everyone on your email list so your
friends and coworkers can contribute their words, as well.

Go now to LettersToKatrinaSurvivors.com

Write your most special letter.

Let us show Katrina's survivors the nature of light to illuminate
the darkest of nights, and the ability of love to conquer even
the most devastating of hurricanes.

Yours for the greatest light,

Michael Norwood

** If you have received this email from a dear friend, and wish to read the letter to my friend Antoine I will be emailing, please sign up to receive it by clicking here.

Meanwhile, open your heart, my friend.

Seize the moment.

Write your letter now .

SEE MICHAEL'S LETTER TO ANTOINE