I have written a couple of posts here about Dafna Michaelson and her 50in52 Journey. The 50 state journey has ended and Dafna is now moving from  sharing the stories of  hometown heroes making a difference, to actually helping them to make it happen!

Be inspired! Watch this great video about her 50 state  Journey:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6049949n&tag=related;photovideo

What Dafna is doing now:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can make a difference too! Without traveling cross country! With just a few clicks by voting for Dafna to win a $250,000 Pepsi Grant to continue her journey to help others. like you make a difference in their communities!

Please Click Here to VOTE!

Dafna Michaelson checks in from New Orleans on her 4oth stop in the 50 in 52 journey.

She is traveling the country sharing the inspiring stories of others. I think she is the most inspiring of all!

That is why I am sharing HER stories here! (for more on this click here).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the interview with Martha Forbes that Dafna talks about in the video above.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be sure to visit the 50 in 50 Journey Website for more inspiring stories about every day people making a difference every day in communities across our great country!

If you haven’t been following Dafna’s journey, please read the previous post to “catch up”!
This is Dafna’s second video of her own journey. Although she has countless video’s of the stories of others, this is her sharing her own story, and her recent trip to NJ as part of her 50in52 Journey

Click here to view the embedded video.

I met Dafna Michaelson a few weeks ago, thanks to a twitter introduction by a friend in Chicago (who I also met via twitter!). Dafna has an amazing story. She is a single mom on a mission to inspire others to make a difference by sharing stories of people all over America who are making a difference. She has spent the past 9 months traveling all across the country interviewing and video-taping every day people who are making a difference (see her 50in52journey here!). Like so many purpose-driven people, she focuses on the cause, and other people. She is after all committed to sharing their story. One of my passions ironically, is to show people the value of their own story, and the value of sharing it with others.

So as I questioned her (although I was the one who was supposed to be getting interviewed:), I came to know her amazing story. I learned about how she simply felt called to do this. Even though her journey is quite different than mine, I recognized an instant common thread, and felt an instant connection that I can’t even explain. She walked away from her career and began her pursuit of her passion late last year, about the same time that I did. She had no idea “how” she would do it, and was surrounded by many who told her that she couldn’t, shouldn’t and a 100 reasons why! When I asked her how she overcame that, and stood up to that and got through that, she simply said “I just knew this is what I was supposed to do” (I could totally relate!)

As she told me how important it was to her to inspire others, and how passionately she believed that sharing these stories with others would do that, all I could do was smile. Smile and say “your story is the most inspiring of them all.” She teared a bit, and I understood why. It was like meeting a kindred spirit…(that’s the power of sharing your story!)

While she has traveled countless miles meeting people who are making a difference, she had no doubt met many who simply were unaware of their own “amazing-ness” – just as she was.
I contacted her a few weeks later after seeing one of her twitter posts and going to her website. Her post said that she was off to Alabama, and I went off to her website. Why? I wanted to see something. I wanted to somehow be a part of it. Share in it. Hear the story. Ironically, the only videos on the site were those of others (of course! I thought!:) So I promptly called her on her cell phone (yes we twitterers do use phones:). I convinced her that her story is part of the story, and that the journey is part of the story. Even the stuff that doesn’t seem that exciting! Not one to “toot her own horn”, I have no doubt that she agreed only because I convinced her that it would serve others! I knew by offering to put it on my blog, she wouldn’t have to worry about whether she was somehow stealing the limelight from those she was interviewing.

I am so excited that this will be the first of many “good soup stories”! I hope that you will follow along as we watch her journey…The journey of a single mom, on a mission. The story of a woman who is creating her own story, and not living the story that someone else made up. A woman who was called. and who didn’t let the thoughts, opinions or judgments of others stop her. Who found a way to do it, in spite of the economy, in spite of the naysayers, and in spite of the “status quo”!

Go Dafna Go!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be sure to check out all of the amazing stories on her website:
http://www.50in52journey.com
Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dafna_m
(What’s YOUR story? If you would like to share it please email to goodsoupstories at gmail dot com