A powerful vision not only motivates you, it inspires other people to action too.
Today’s vision story comes from the hospital room of a three-year-old little boy…a little boy filled with joy who wanted to send smiles to others. It sparked a global movement as others joined in to bring it to life.
Our son, Jenson, had already endured 55 rounds of chemo and received a bone marrow transplant from his five-year-old sister Sydney. As he lay in the hospital recovering from the grueling bone marrow transplant process, he felt sad. He had lost his ability to walk, needed diapers again, and the little hair he had managed to hold onto from previous rounds of chemo fell out.
I showed him a picture of another little boy his age named Marcus with his same disease, Histiocytosis. Marcus was also in the hospital recovering from his second bone marrow transplant.
Jenson looked at me with a smile and said, “I need send him a monkey!”. We packed up a monkey stuffed animal and mailed it to Philadelphia.
A vision of a three-year-old little boy wanting to send smiles came alive.
As Jenson was discharged from the hospital, my work friends heard about us mailing monkeys to other Histio Warriors. They dropped off a car full of monkey stuffed animals.
Work friends joined in on the vision.
Sydney and Jenson smiled big when they saw all the monkeys dropped off. Sydney wanted to send smiles to brothers and sisters too. She also added lollipops for the family to the care package because “kids love lollies.” I created a logo, and we named it Monkey Grins.
Five-year-old Sydney expanded the vision.
Jenson got to see the first five packages mailed out before he departed this world. At his funeral, we had everyone bring a monkey to keep his vision of sending smiles alive.
Grown men, women, and children brought monkeys, expanding the vision and honoring Jenson’s life.
With so many monkeys needing a home, I set up a partnership with the Histiocytosis Association. In the last fourteen years, we’ve mailed thousands and thousands of monkeys to Histiocytosis families, sending smiles and joy in the midst of a difficult journey. And much to our surprise, Monkey Grins has gone “global” thanks to the reach of the Histiocytosis Association.
A non-profit organization partnered to expand the vision into a global movement.
Each time we do a large group of Monkey Grin mailings, people in our local community help pack up the care packages. Other people donate new monkeys and money for postage to keep the vision alive.
Generous donors keep the vision alive.
From the heart of a sweet three-year-old boy in the midst of his own suffering, something beautiful emerged as others got excited about his vision.
Now that’s THE POWER OF VISION.
If a three-year-old little boy could launch a global movement, imagine what is possible in this world as we each get clear on our vision.
What is YOUR vision? What sparks joy for you?
PS: If you’re interested in working together on YOUR VISION, learn more on my website https://kristinaaron.com/ and request a free vision session.
