I felt a bit of nausea as I looked down at an old and worn photo that my friend Gary was showing me.

I was sitting in the back of a jeep on the bumpy road to Mopti (as an aside, Mopti is about 7 hours south of Timbuktu in the middle of the desert in my beloved Western Africa).

We were driving into a remote area of Mali to visit a health center, part of a press trip I was organizing about tetanus with several UNICEF donors.

The grainy photo was a picture of Martin Luther King that had been tucked in his wallet.

Gary told me he'd been carrying that image of MLK since he was a teenager, to fill him with daily inspiration of his words of wisdom, hope, and change.

MLK is a personal favorite of mine in terms who inspires me with grace and goodness, and I loved seeing my friend felt the same way.

I still think about that moment on MLK day, which is what we are celebrating here today in the United States.

As we all know, MLK dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for civil rights in this country and man, we still have so much work to do.

I’m writing this just to say that if you don’t know enough about this man, I encourage you to take a moment to absorb some of his wisdom.

And I want to share one of my favorite of his many quotes. He said:

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”

I think what he meant was this: we should do what we can, and not be derailed by what we cannot do.

That whatever circumstance you are born into, you have the power to choose to keep moving forward.

If Dr. King could have this philosophy and perseverance in the face of violence and discrimination, then surely we can continue to move forward through whatever we are facing.

It’s not easy and for some of us it’s way harder. But you have to keep trying.

I love this national holiday because MLK's very life reminds me to do what I can to leave this world a slightly better place than the way I found it.

And to always, always keep. moving. forward.

With fierce love,
Alison