Melissa,
Someone famous ( I cant remember who) once wrote that "success is defined by getting up only once more than we got knocked down", and it occurs to me that the creation of peace, to which your heroic efforts were addressed, should be defined likewise. The life sustaining components of human creativity- love, peace, abundance- are simply man's recognition of the fabric of the universe and his willingness to use the tools at hand to express them uniquely. Our creative powers, matter upon matter, energy upon energy, and flesh upon flesh are limited only by the arbitrary lines we assign to them inside our minds. Some would call this apparent limitation free will... and in deference to convention and the wrath of the god-fearing masses I will give man this symbolic morsel to cling to...lol... but not without claryfying it first! Simply, free will...consciousness itself...is merely an aperature by which the universe observes itself at play. And compassion is the effort by which those with wider aperatures attempt to help others recognize the innate beauty and abundance that is both implicit and explicit. What could be a grander expression of such compassion than this fast of yours?

All this verbosity to make this short comment! You need'nt worry about success. Your actions were outward manifestations of of the indominable lifeforce that permeates the human condition. Similarly, knowing and observing you lately, I see that this fast has granted you a broader scope toward inner peace, and to greater command of a love which because it cares not to whom it falls cannot fail to reverberate and manifest peace to all those perceptive enough to catch your loving waves.

The inherant limitations of the human condition are at once its magnificence and its curse. We get knocked down...we knock ourselves down... but we rest, we recover...and we keep getting back up. Thanks for reminding us how successful we are.

Much love,
Kelly