Cynthia with Susan Fries the Director of Community Engagement at Literacy Connects in Tucson,

Susan is originally from Texas, where she was born, raised, went to school, and earned a bachelor’s and a nursing degree. Susan has worked in a variety of nursing specialties: women’s health, reproductive endocrinology, renal transplant and research. Although serving the community as a Registered Nurse was rewarding, it was also exhausting for Susan, who felt her bucket was constantly being emptied and never replenished. In 2008, she moved with her husband to Tucson. She left her career in nursing and started looking for what might sustain her.Susan’s inquiry led her to a small nonprofit where she began to experience life a little differently. The freshness of being in a new town, with a new job, learning and working in new ways was exciting for Susan. She was feeling better about life, but as the novelty wore off, old destructive thought patterns returned. Martyrdom, resentment, judgement, anger, and shame began to creep back in to Susan’s mind and heart.On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held at a Safeway less than 5 miles from Susan’s house. Her husband, Randy, was the attending trauma surgeon at the hospital who received and cared for the victims.The collective grief that overtook Tucson was immense. Susan says, “The negative feelings that had returned were compounded by my anger and tremendous sadness. At work one day, a colleague asked me how I was doing. “Not good,” I replied. She suggested that I talk to her friend. Not a therapist exactly, but someone who might be able to help. An “empowerment coach,” she said. What did I have to lose?”After 10 years of working with her coach, what Susan has learned is simple yet profound: when you honor and love yourself, you fill your own bucket. And by doing that, amazing people and events flow into your life. Susan says, “My belief systems, my values, my self-worth, my relationship with myself, my intuition, and my Divinity are all subjects to be explored, treasures to be unearthed. I used to want to change the world as a distraction from changing myself. Now I understand the former is impossible without the later.”Susan is currently the Director of Community Engagement at Literacy Connects in Tucson, a nonprofit connecting people of all ages to a world of opportunities through literacy and creative expression. She is also working towards her Master’s degree at the University of Vermont in Leadership for Sustainability, a program grounded in the belief that the changes we create in the world are reflective of the changes and conditions we cultivate in ourselves