there were over 270 million
cluster bombs that were dropped over
Laos during the Vietnam War a third of
them never exploded which means that
ordinary citizens and children today are
being impacted by those unexploded
ordnance there were more than five
hundred and eighty thousand bombing
missions that took place over Laos from
1964 to 1973 which means that Laos the
land of my birth is the most heavily
bombed country in world history war
planes filled the skies and bombs rained
down over the country impacting millions
and millions of people and families like
my own who had to either take cover
underground or be killed I was born on
March 24th 1975 by April 30th the world
had declared the Vietnam War over soon
after that the Communists took power in
Laos and by May two months after my
birth in 1975 my father was captured and
placed in a reeducation camp otherwise
known as seminar or forced labor it was
during this tumultuous time in my
father’s life that he really had to dive
deep he had to go to a place that
transcended the physical body and
reached the soul in that moment of
turmoil a miracle happened my father had
his ultimate goal in life and his
mission was to make sure that he
survived so that he can get his family
five females at the time to a safe and
healthy environment
my father had to trust that there was
more to his physical being because if he
only relied on his body he would have
perished within months his mind and his
heart would have given up but he had to
go deeper he had to go deeper to a place
where love still resided where hope was
still hope and where there was an
unwavering faith that it was going to be
okay it was through that convergence of
the physical body and the soul coming
together that he was able to find the
fuel to survive that he was able to find
the hope and the energy to reignite his
purpose for living I think about my
father and what he must have gone
through and I think about the moments or
conversations he must have had had in
his own life in his own mind and what he
might have imagined and in my mind I’m
thinking he knew that there was a
purpose for living now he had to take
care of us he had to survive and he knew
that his survival and his willpower to
live was directly correlated to our
paths and lives and what would become of
us and in that knowing and in that trust
he found a way he found a way to escape
so that he can find safety for us he
found a way so that he could help us
survive a long journey to
god-knows-where
during that escape that he had plotted
and he also imagine a world that maybe
one day all of us could thrive beyond
his wildest imaginations that spiritual
place he went to gave him superhuman
powers it activated something inside of
him
and it inspired me and inspires me today
my father with his clarity of vision and
his emotional commitment to the mission
in his life was to get us across the
everything else in his life would be
additional blessings my father made a
conscious choice he made an incredible
choice to stay alive he did not give up
hope but he had to remind himself on a
daily basis that he was a soul living
inside a physical body because otherwise
it wouldn’t have happened he wouldn’t
have made it through my father also made
a conscious choice to believe that all
of the things in the universe would come
together and make it happen for us and
I’m so grateful because I’m here in
front of you today after four years of
plotting the escape
we finally as a family left to cross the
Mekong River and a boat like that there
were six and a half of us my brother was
in my mom’s tummy and my father was
writing secret telegrams to relatives in
Thailand and on the evening of our
escape they met us across the river they
stuffed us in a produce truck
and they took us to a safe house for two
weeks again as I mentioned my mother was
several months pregnant and my
grandmother could not contain her grief
because she was leaving the only place
she had ever known we finally made it to
the refugee camps it was overcrowded
heavily guarded and we had to dig
underneath barbed wire fences to force
herself into safety you know I think
about the miracle that happened when my
father was at the re-education camp
where he uncovered his purpose
even through the tumultuous times
miracles happen another miracle took
place when we founders that’s ourselves
safe at the refugee camp my brother was
born safely inside that camp
miracles do happen I think so much and
I’m still in awe when I think about my
parents and my grandmother and what it
must have taken for them to leave the
only place they’d ever known for them to
trust that it was going to be okay I
wondered how they were able to find that
superhuman strength go deep to the soul
where all of that still resided and
pushed away the fears push away the
anxiety to continue to row that boat to
continue to dig underneath barbed wire
fences and to hop on a plane to an
unknown destination never ever knowing
where they were going to land but always
with an inner knowing in a trust that it
would be some place better as my life
unfolded and continues to unfold I now
understand
how my parents were able to tap into
that space
go to the soul I’ve been through so much
in my own personal journey I’ve had my
own losses in my pains and I’ve had to
dig deep I’ve had to question everything
but yet there was always an inner
knowing inside of me a deep trust that I
was being carried to someplace better I
always knew that and perhaps it’s
inherited coated in my DNA somehow this
ability to draw upon the trust and
optimism and hope but regardless it is
so empowering and useful to be able to
be able to draw upon that hope and trust
and have faith because if you are
devoted and committed to manifesting a
life where there is more consistent joy
than there is pain and despair to over I
the beauty that this journey called life
can provide it is a magical thing I’ve
had to do a lot of soul-searching
my family has we’ve been through so much
we understand and have experienced the
sorrows and frustrations of poverty and
of prejudice I’ve reached the depths of
despair I truly have and I’ve looked
trauma right in the eyes many times and
it punched me in the face anyway I’ve
experienced tragic loss of a fiancee to
a drowning accident three months before
our wedding I’ve had my hand on my
father’s heart when he drew his last
breath I cleaned my best friend’s
apartment when we learned that he took
and I wiped the tears the last one to be
shed
when grandmother was leaving us on this
earthly plane so I know what it feels
like to be in deep despair but I also
know that there is a place that we can
go to the soul level to the place where
love and hope and unwavering unwavering
trust was pre-packaged came along with
our soul it has given me superhuman
strength it has allowed me to actually
take the bruises and the broken pieces
to create beautiful mosaics living
testimonies of the fragility and the
beauty of our lives as well as the body
and the souls capacity to learn to bend
instead of break as I went through my
journeys I did go deep within as you can
hear but I also learned how to reach out
for help I sought counseling and group
sharing activities I read countless
self-help books you wouldn’t believe how
many I also hire trained coaches and
hypnotherapist to help me on a healthy
healing journey and I practice
meditation an emotional freedom
technique tapping EFT we have to gather
those tools and place them deep inside
of us somewhere safe so that we can
reach for them and turn them on and
actively participate in our next moves
when life experiences throw those
boulders onto our path
I have deep wounds very painful scars
they’re still with me and I have a
profound understanding that they all are
coming together to put the pieces of my
destiny so it can make sense of my
purpose in life I get that now and I
love my story I finally love my story I
love all of it because of all the
miraculous things that took place along
the way and all along on my journey and
all of our journeys miracles happen
every day miracles happen
for example war war put me on this path
it gave me a second chance so that I can
experience experiencing so much death it
actually brought me to life I honor
everything my friends know this about me
I honor every moment every experience
good bad and profound the heartbreaks
the betrayals the disappointments they
taught me how to love openly and
honestly they taught me how to forgive
quickly myself and others so that there
is a lightness in my heart which creates
more room for love to enter for me to be
loved and for me to give love these are
the things that activate our super human
powers the trust and the inner knowing
and going to that deep place of the soul
it helps me to create a world where it’s
not all about my pain it’s about my
Joy’s it’s about all the things that
come from the pain the pain doesn’t have
to linger when our body and our soul
meets
we truly truly understand that the body
was created as a tool was created as a
tool for us to channel message and
deliver our souls work that’s what I’ve
learned I’ve learned that the healing
actually takes place while hurting and
I’ve learned how to fall ever more Grace
Lee gracefully with every tumble I’ve
learned that all is as it should be or
it would be something else and I’ve
learned to love what life has to offer
me except instead of expecting it to be
the way I want it to be war tragic
losses disappointments life’s
instabilities they do a lot of damage to
the soul to the spirit I should say but
when we were able to turn our pain into
our motivation something brilliant
happens the convergence of the physical
and the soul when they come together
consciously it’s such a beautiful
beautiful place to stand when you can
look at the world with new lenses and
you can see everything as a teaching
moment or as a lesson or something
that’s going to build you up and make
you stronger and build your empathy
buckets so far so deep so wide that you
can just about help anybody
my biggest hope and wish for you is that
you remember that every chance you get
that your body came with a soul that
wants to soar in this lifetime that you
find your clarity of vision
and make a recommitment to your mission
in this life my greatest prayer is that
you understand your Worth is that you
turn the pain into passion and you
activate your superhuman powers your
gifts your talents your life experiences
to create such a ripple effect across
the world for future generations and
throughout the universe that is my call
to action thank you okay [Applause]
cluster bombs that were dropped over
Laos during the Vietnam War a third of
them never exploded which means that
ordinary citizens and children today are
being impacted by those unexploded
ordnance there were more than five
hundred and eighty thousand bombing
missions that took place over Laos from
1964 to 1973 which means that Laos the
land of my birth is the most heavily
bombed country in world history war
planes filled the skies and bombs rained
down over the country impacting millions
and millions of people and families like
my own who had to either take cover
underground or be killed I was born on
March 24th 1975 by April 30th the world
had declared the Vietnam War over soon
after that the Communists took power in
Laos and by May two months after my
birth in 1975 my father was captured and
placed in a reeducation camp otherwise
known as seminar or forced labor it was
during this tumultuous time in my
father’s life that he really had to dive
deep he had to go to a place that
transcended the physical body and
reached the soul in that moment of
turmoil a miracle happened my father had
his ultimate goal in life and his
mission was to make sure that he
survived so that he can get his family
five females at the time to a safe and
healthy environment
my father had to trust that there was
more to his physical being because if he
only relied on his body he would have
perished within months his mind and his
heart would have given up but he had to
go deeper he had to go deeper to a place
where love still resided where hope was
still hope and where there was an
unwavering faith that it was going to be
okay it was through that convergence of
the physical body and the soul coming
together that he was able to find the
fuel to survive that he was able to find
the hope and the energy to reignite his
purpose for living I think about my
father and what he must have gone
through and I think about the moments or
conversations he must have had had in
his own life in his own mind and what he
might have imagined and in my mind I’m
thinking he knew that there was a
purpose for living now he had to take
care of us he had to survive and he knew
that his survival and his willpower to
live was directly correlated to our
paths and lives and what would become of
us and in that knowing and in that trust
he found a way he found a way to escape
so that he can find safety for us he
found a way so that he could help us
survive a long journey to
god-knows-where
during that escape that he had plotted
and he also imagine a world that maybe
one day all of us could thrive beyond
his wildest imaginations that spiritual
place he went to gave him superhuman
powers it activated something inside of
him
and it inspired me and inspires me today
my father with his clarity of vision and
his emotional commitment to the mission
in his life was to get us across the
everything else in his life would be
additional blessings my father made a
conscious choice he made an incredible
choice to stay alive he did not give up
hope but he had to remind himself on a
daily basis that he was a soul living
inside a physical body because otherwise
it wouldn’t have happened he wouldn’t
have made it through my father also made
a conscious choice to believe that all
of the things in the universe would come
together and make it happen for us and
I’m so grateful because I’m here in
front of you today after four years of
plotting the escape
we finally as a family left to cross the
Mekong River and a boat like that there
were six and a half of us my brother was
in my mom’s tummy and my father was
writing secret telegrams to relatives in
Thailand and on the evening of our
escape they met us across the river they
stuffed us in a produce truck
and they took us to a safe house for two
weeks again as I mentioned my mother was
several months pregnant and my
grandmother could not contain her grief
because she was leaving the only place
she had ever known we finally made it to
the refugee camps it was overcrowded
heavily guarded and we had to dig
underneath barbed wire fences to force
herself into safety you know I think
about the miracle that happened when my
father was at the re-education camp
where he uncovered his purpose
even through the tumultuous times
miracles happen another miracle took
place when we founders that’s ourselves
safe at the refugee camp my brother was
born safely inside that camp
miracles do happen I think so much and
I’m still in awe when I think about my
parents and my grandmother and what it
must have taken for them to leave the
only place they’d ever known for them to
trust that it was going to be okay I
wondered how they were able to find that
superhuman strength go deep to the soul
where all of that still resided and
pushed away the fears push away the
anxiety to continue to row that boat to
continue to dig underneath barbed wire
fences and to hop on a plane to an
unknown destination never ever knowing
where they were going to land but always
with an inner knowing in a trust that it
would be some place better as my life
unfolded and continues to unfold I now
understand
how my parents were able to tap into
that space
go to the soul I’ve been through so much
in my own personal journey I’ve had my
own losses in my pains and I’ve had to
dig deep I’ve had to question everything
but yet there was always an inner
knowing inside of me a deep trust that I
was being carried to someplace better I
always knew that and perhaps it’s
inherited coated in my DNA somehow this
ability to draw upon the trust and
optimism and hope but regardless it is
so empowering and useful to be able to
be able to draw upon that hope and trust
and have faith because if you are
devoted and committed to manifesting a
life where there is more consistent joy
than there is pain and despair to over I
the beauty that this journey called life
can provide it is a magical thing I’ve
had to do a lot of soul-searching
my family has we’ve been through so much
we understand and have experienced the
sorrows and frustrations of poverty and
of prejudice I’ve reached the depths of
despair I truly have and I’ve looked
trauma right in the eyes many times and
it punched me in the face anyway I’ve
experienced tragic loss of a fiancee to
a drowning accident three months before
our wedding I’ve had my hand on my
father’s heart when he drew his last
breath I cleaned my best friend’s
apartment when we learned that he took
and I wiped the tears the last one to be
shed
when grandmother was leaving us on this
earthly plane so I know what it feels
like to be in deep despair but I also
know that there is a place that we can
go to the soul level to the place where
love and hope and unwavering unwavering
trust was pre-packaged came along with
our soul it has given me superhuman
strength it has allowed me to actually
take the bruises and the broken pieces
to create beautiful mosaics living
testimonies of the fragility and the
beauty of our lives as well as the body
and the souls capacity to learn to bend
instead of break as I went through my
journeys I did go deep within as you can
hear but I also learned how to reach out
for help I sought counseling and group
sharing activities I read countless
self-help books you wouldn’t believe how
many I also hire trained coaches and
hypnotherapist to help me on a healthy
healing journey and I practice
meditation an emotional freedom
technique tapping EFT we have to gather
those tools and place them deep inside
of us somewhere safe so that we can
reach for them and turn them on and
actively participate in our next moves
when life experiences throw those
boulders onto our path
I have deep wounds very painful scars
they’re still with me and I have a
profound understanding that they all are
coming together to put the pieces of my
destiny so it can make sense of my
purpose in life I get that now and I
love my story I finally love my story I
love all of it because of all the
miraculous things that took place along
the way and all along on my journey and
all of our journeys miracles happen
every day miracles happen
for example war war put me on this path
it gave me a second chance so that I can
experience experiencing so much death it
actually brought me to life I honor
everything my friends know this about me
I honor every moment every experience
good bad and profound the heartbreaks
the betrayals the disappointments they
taught me how to love openly and
honestly they taught me how to forgive
quickly myself and others so that there
is a lightness in my heart which creates
more room for love to enter for me to be
loved and for me to give love these are
the things that activate our super human
powers the trust and the inner knowing
and going to that deep place of the soul
it helps me to create a world where it’s
not all about my pain it’s about my
Joy’s it’s about all the things that
come from the pain the pain doesn’t have
to linger when our body and our soul
meets
we truly truly understand that the body
was created as a tool was created as a
tool for us to channel message and
deliver our souls work that’s what I’ve
learned I’ve learned that the healing
actually takes place while hurting and
I’ve learned how to fall ever more Grace
Lee gracefully with every tumble I’ve
learned that all is as it should be or
it would be something else and I’ve
learned to love what life has to offer
me except instead of expecting it to be
the way I want it to be war tragic
losses disappointments life’s
instabilities they do a lot of damage to
the soul to the spirit I should say but
when we were able to turn our pain into
our motivation something brilliant
happens the convergence of the physical
and the soul when they come together
consciously it’s such a beautiful
beautiful place to stand when you can
look at the world with new lenses and
you can see everything as a teaching
moment or as a lesson or something
that’s going to build you up and make
you stronger and build your empathy
buckets so far so deep so wide that you
can just about help anybody
my biggest hope and wish for you is that
you remember that every chance you get
that your body came with a soul that
wants to soar in this lifetime that you
find your clarity of vision
and make a recommitment to your mission
in this life my greatest prayer is that
you understand your Worth is that you
turn the pain into passion and you
activate your superhuman powers your
gifts your talents your life experiences
to create such a ripple effect across
the world for future generations and
throughout the universe that is my call
to action thank you okay [Applause]
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