Local equine location offers a variety of services. Page B3.
LifeStyles Thursday, Feb. 9 2012
Canyon Crest graduate thrilled to be a finalist in Disney design contest. Page B2
SECTION B
Arielle Ford, aka Fairy Godmother of Love, writes a new how-to Arielle Ford is a force in the personal growth and contemporary spirituality movement. For the past 25 years she has been living, teaching, and promoting consciousness through all forms of media. Her career includes years as a book publicist for Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Dean Ornish, Neale Donald Walsch, Debbie Ford and many others. She is currently a radio host, publishing consultant, reArielle Ford lationship expert, speaker, columnist and blogger for the Huffington Post. www.arielleford.com Ford is a writer and the author of eight books including her latest, “Wabi Sabi Love: The Ancient Art of Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships,” and the international bestseller, The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life With the Law of Attraction.” She has been called “The Cupid of Consciousness” and “The Fairy Godmother of Love.” She lives locally with her husband/soulmate, Brian Hilliard and their feline friends. Who or what inspires you? That’s easy, my husband, Brian. He’s a giver, someone who is always looking for ways to make people feel loved and acknowledged. If you hosted a dinner party for eight who (living or deceased) would you invite? My husband Brian, Vivian Glyck, founder of www. justlikemychild.org, and her husband Mike Koenigs, two special guests for Vivian to connect with Bill Gates and Nicholas Kristof, my sister Debbie Ford and my mother Sheila Fuerst. Any chance you can make this happen? What are your five favorite movies of all time? I love movies and will watch just about anything that isn’t too violent and bloody. I confess that I have a thing for stupid, funny movies. I have watched “Legally Blond,” “Meet the Fockers,” “All of Me,” and “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” many, many times. I am also a fan of “Shawshank Redemption” and “Somewhere In Time.” What is your most prized possession? My passport. I love to travel to exotic places. Especially India. What do you do for fun? Travel and fine dining are high on my list of fun activities along with tennis, reading a good murder mystery, playing solitaire on my iPad, hanging out with my husband and the cats, riding my awesome new Street Strider (a street legal elliptical bike), and most of the time my work is a lot of fun. I love making stuff happen. Describe your greatest accomplishment. Co-creating my life into a life that has exceeded all my expectations. I spent a lot of my youth very depressed and I was a terrible student. I committed to many years of personal growth work to discover the keys to happiness and found them. What is your motto? “It’s a both/and world. It’s both the way you say it is and the way I say it is.”
A crusade
for kindness
Traveler touches Del Mar, Solana Beach in cross-country mission BY CLAIRE HARLIN editor@delmartimes.net If you were out in Del Mar or Solana Beach late last week you might have noticed a pale blue school bus covered in inspirational messages parked along Camino Del Mar. Or maybe you met the driver, Bob Votruba, a mid-50s man on a mountain bike decorated with signs honoring fallen servicemen and promoting a prevailing message — be kind. Votruba and his Boston Terrier, Bogart, have been traveling the country for more than two years in what he calls the “Kindness Bus,” urging people he encounters to make a pledge to commit one million acts of kindness in their lifetime. “That’s 50 a day every day for 55 years. Or it can be 100 a day for 27 years,” said Votruba, who documents his travels at www.onemillionactsofkindness.com. “There are the physical acts, like holding a door, helping someone out, saying ‘thank you’ or ‘good-bye.’ Or it can be kindness from the heart, like wishing goodness and wishing great things happen to the people around you. Doing that all day, along with the physical acts, you can certainly reach one million acts.” In addition to promoting the underlying message of kindness, Vortruba has focused his trips around particular causes. In this trip, for example, he is riding from Santa Monica, where he set off on Jan. 21, to Jacksonville, Fla., where he plans to arrive on June 21. His bike carries signs reading “Riding 4,000 miles for heroes”; “Riding for wounded warriors”; “Police and firefighters killed in the line of duty”; and “These heroes deserve our respect.” In his last cross-country trek, he focused on raising awareness about domestic violence and child abuse, suggesting that the more people accept kindness, the less the world will suffer from violent acts. He drives his bus from town to town and rides his bike around the town, spreading his message and passing out flyers and stickers. He averages about 26 miles a day on bike, he said. In Del Mar on Feb. 2, Votruba attracted the attention and praise of many passers-by, who shared questions,
Bob Votruba and his dog, Bogart, have been traveling the country for more than two years in “The Kindness Bus” and “The Kindness Bike.” Above: Locals stop Votruba and share kudos on Feb. 2 during his passing through Del Mar. PHOTOS: CLAIRE HARLIN handshakes, high-fives and donations. He visited the Del Mar Fire Station and visited with Capt. Patrick O’Neil, he said. “He said he has so many nieces and nephews and they all need to have this lesson, knowing who our heroes are,” Votruba said. Votruba also spent time in Encinitas, where he visited the firehouse and San Dieguito Academy. He spent the day in Solana Beach at the Cedros Avenue Farmers’ Market on Jan. 29, and the previous week in Escondido he performed a school program — which he does often — fit with a puppet show, motivational talk and reading of his published picture book about Bogart. After Del Mar, Votruba made a visit to the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park and then to Phil’s Barbecue, the owner of which happens to be his nephew. Votruba’s mission to honor those who have been in either military or public service follows his crusade against domestic and child abuse, which started on May 14 in Coney Island and culminated on Dec. 19 in Malibu. He said the idea came about when he began to notice how widespread the problem is and how little it is talked about. “When I am passing through on the bus, people know
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