Gratitude

This has been too long in coming, though I have carried it in my heart if not always at the front of my mind as I've made my way in life thus far. I am now living very happily in California, I started a part-time job yesterday as a tutor / caregiver for an eleven-year-old boy in the area, and just this morning I was able to borrow a fifteen-year-old Volvo to help me get around for work. In my free time I am working to incorporate boNGO, the non-profit I helped found in Malawi, here in California and to get it accredited with 501(c)3 non-profit tax-exempt status in the United States. Additionally, I am still researching possibilities for graduate school, having initially come to California to check out a program at Berkeley which is not on track to be ready by next year, my focus has been shifted to Ph.D. rather than Master's programs.



Needless to say, I am in a very exciting, positive, and progressive place in my life right now. I can only take very partial credit for my fortunate circumstance, as there are numerous people who have enabled me to get here, through generosity of wealth and spirit, strong faith in good intentions, and unbending friendship. My mother Susan Morris is first and foremost for each of these attributes and, along with my father James Leflar, allowing me to never grow up as a cynic and to pursue learning as an endless progress. I would not so well situated here in California without the love and support of Johanna Cohen and her family, especially her daughter Stephanie and her roomates in Berkeley who have let me into their lives and with whom I look forward to many great times. Sara Leflar Wood-Kraft and John Kraft have also been extremely generous in taking me in at Rockridge and also allowing me the use of their car, for which I am endlessly grateful. I promise to make pizzas for all of you out here!



My aunt Maggie and my uncle Chuck in Brooklyn put me up and put me to work this summer, helping my transition back into American life by tossing me right in the deep end, which is how I like it!



My brothers Elliot and Jim have been constant confidants and I gain immeasurable strength from their support. Along with my father and myself, the four of us Leflar men often have very profound and probing email exchanges about our existential natures and how to use our gifted minds to their greatest potentials.



I was blessed to join almost all of my paternal cousins for Jess' wedding in March, and my maternal side is about to be blessed with the first member of a new generation, the news coming out today that it's to be a little Bentson boy!



I have friends from high school, friends from Sewanee, friends from Prague, and friends from Malawi with whom I will never lose touch, as we have shared and continue to share such glorious life-affirming times together. We are all destined for greatness.



For your love, your laughter, and the strokes of brilliance possessed by each and every one of you, thank you.