Acknowledgments

My heartfelt appreciation to my twins for inspiring the writing of this book. When you were born, your loving energy and presence brought me back to what I was born knowing, and the words flowed through me onto the pages. Thank you for being you and for choosing me. I love you.

Thank you to my late grandparents, Bubbie Eva and Zaidie Harry (Klein), for whom my twins are lovingly named. They had endured and survived the Holocaust. They believed in and visualized life in their determination to prevail against overwhelming odds. When they rebuilt their lives in Canada, they focused on the positive and what made them happy. They found reason, in their love of family and community, to laugh and smile often. Forty-five years after my grandfather was liberated, he began working on a remembrance book (publ. 1994) — a compilation of stories, his own and fellow hometown survivors, along with contributions from second and third-generation survivors (I contributed a few pieces at age 11). His book serves as an intergenerational transmission of resilience and hope. Thank you Bubbie and Zaidie for teaching me about believing, visualizing, valuing oneself, love, kindness, resilience, and appreciating life’s simple pleasures. These principles form the basis of my book.

Thank you to my other inspirational teachers, Esther Hicks (and Abraham and Jerry), John Kobel, Dr. Brian Weiss, Mom, Dad, Jon, Sari, Brad, Starbie, and everyone who has and continues to inspire me along the way.