These are my friends Lizzy Bentley and Arge O’Neil, the people responsible for my fund raising forays in Malibu Beach, along with their two beautiful sons Lucan (sipping from his fancy water bottle) and Isaiah (gravely reading from the latest issue of Highlights).

Lizzy came to India in 1987 where she worked with SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) in Ahmedabad. Through mutual friends, she connected with us, spent Christmas at our place that year and then dropped off the face of the earth for about 18 years.

In 2005, we reconnected and she offered to arrange what turned out to be a spectacularly successful fund raising event for Karuna Vihar in her Malibu Beach parish. We decided to do it again this year and I had the pleasure of visiting them in their beautiful new home, which features the amazing Tree of Life below. It was a wonderful visit, and I marveled at the generosity and kindness of this young couple, the delight they take in their children and the passion they have for making a difference in the world.