What can I say about this sparkling woman? I know she has worked countless hours to support others from LiA to Seeing Beyond Sight, Rose Vines, and the Food Chain. But I can't speak to those as I can speak to what she is to me.

She is my coffee bean sister. (What is that? Daughter and Mother having a conversation in the kitchen over a difficult matter at hand. Daughter is boiling water. Mother looks into the bubbling water and says, "Daughter it comes down to this: are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" Daughter looks up in confusion, but knows her mother often shares such odd metaphorical wisdom that she plays along. "What do you mean by that, Mom?" Mother replies, "When you put a carrot in hot water, what happens to it?" Daughter looks quizically at her Mother and says it gets soft. She thinks of times in her life where she has been in hot water and tended to get soft. Is she a carrot, she wonders? Mother waits for her daughter to reflect and then asks, "What happens when you put an egg in hot water?" Daughter replies, "it gets hard." And she realizes that in times where things have gotten rough she has learned to be hard sometimes. Maybe she is an egg? Mother shakes her head slightly as she watches her daughter thinking and frowning. "Dear daughter, what happens when you put a coffee bean in hot water?" And the daughter pauses...."well, Mom, it doesn't change so much as the water changes." And the mother responds, "Precisely" with a wide grin.

Anne Marie is my courageous, even fearless, and bold coffee bean sister, transforming the water around her into a daring and awakening drink. Alive. Living. She is a sparkling woman.

As a business collaborator she has helped me see how to visualize community resources. She has offered up wisdom from many hours of research, so I can be informed about my collaborative building project (and other efforts of mine too). And she has played a vital role in cheering and supporting my work and my growth professionally.

As a friend Anne Marie has listened to my dark moments with deep compassion and championed boldness and openness. When I left my husband, she held my hand virtually, and gave me strength to walk a hard path. She has listened to my light and celebratory moments and danced with joy with me and for me. When I fell in love many moons later, she "play fully" danced in bliss with me and told me I deserved this joy. And that made it feel better. She has given me safety to fall down and make mistakes. She has given me challenges to spur my growth.

She has given this all to me with deep grace, and when I thank her with my heart bursting with gratitude she replies that it is her pleasure and honor. That she herself is full of gratitude for our connection. And that makes me feel okay about taking her generous loving gifts of time, attention, radiance, and resources.

Thanks you Anne Marie!

It was in Chicago. During the last ON conference there.

I was sitting in our usual circle, and I felt a strange stillness that my eyes then sought out. I saw a woman I had not seen before. She was already looking at me, steadfastly and with calm that only comes with deep understanding. She was looking at me with a sharpness of clarity at a depth of recognition I had not experienced before.

I found my sight transfixed in mutual recognition, with that seeing happening rather than being done. I was being drawn slowly and steadily into her soul, and being cleansed and purified and healed as I passed through the halo of her sustained and compassionate recognition.

At that time, I was sure she knew me as no one knew me, and as even I didn't know myself, and that I had found new depths of being I would never lose.

In the meantime, the rest of everyone and everything went on around us, but I was being blessed in the lucid glow of her compassionate recognition, and was able to let everything fall, without a care.

Later, I learned that this luminous spirit is known as Anne Marie Bellavance. Anne Marie one of the brightest stars illuminating and uplifting this community.