What Happened with Lisa Ling?!

Dear Patients and Friends,

Well it finally happened! Whatever nervousness I had before meeting Lisa Ling quickly disappeared the moment she came out of her van and gave me a loving hug when we met for the first time in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

From the moment she appeared out of her vehicle at 9:30 AM Friday morning August 23, all the way through until the end of the Young Man's Ultimate Weekend Event, on Sunday afternoon August 25 at 4 PM, she was an angel. Throughout the YMUW, she always radiated kindness, love, compassion and wisdom.

Prior to the event, some of my volunteers (all adult men) were hesitant to have Lisa there because they were concerned that the young men or the volunteers would not be able to simply " be themselves". There was a sincere belief that the young men and volunteers would not be willing to reveal their deep emotional wounds or to ecstatically celebrate their highest victories.

After all, we never had a woman at this all male rite of passage initiation in 20 years!

It All Worked Out

Well, as it turns out, we were energetically "outnumbered" by Lisa. Her ability to blend into the background and skilfully know when and how to engage everyone was flawless. She was always welcomed to be everywhere she wanted because she instilled a deep trust for her within all of us, right from the start.

Lisa and her camera crew recorded approximately 20 hours of video footage at the YMUW as well as recording additional footage of the parenting workshop that I was leading in a nearby hotel. She also filmed a 45-minute interview that she did with me separately from the YMUW and from the parent workshop.

By the time the events were over, nobody wanted to leave! Her crew, our volunteers, myself and Lisa Ling were engaged in a weekend love-fest!

What's Next

I am completely thankful for the opportunity YMUW will have to become nationally known when the show airs next year in the fall. We need this time to reach out to people who know how to best leverage this opportunity that's coming for us. As a nonprofit organization, YMUW is ready to step into the spotlight as a practical solution for helping our sons successfully launch into young adulthood as respectful, responsible and resilient young man.

If you have any ideas about how we can best prepare for what I hope is a boost in publicity, please let me know. If you, or people you know, have wisdom on how to do fundraising, or how we might obtain our own land, or want to become active participants on our Board, please let me know.

Thank You

All of you have consistently told me that I deserve this Lisa Ling "gift" from the universe. Your words have been blessings because I have felt, in my own personal growth process through this time frame, that I've been leaving behind my own life-long issues such as, "I'm not good enough", or "I'll never have enough", etc. etc.

Thank you for being in my corner with all for your enthusiasm and support, Allowing myself to receive your endorsements has helped me move through my own process with much greater ease.

True,
Dr. Mark