Megan McDowell is a mother of three young daughters, Mary, Caroline and Madison and lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey with her husband Eddie. She is a Licensed Social Worker and grief counselor with a part-time private practice in near by Morristown, NJ. Megan is a public speaker and author focusing on the power of giving as a means to create balance and joy in one's life. She facilitates the Bernardsville group along with a tremendous amount of help from her friends on the Executive Board.  She also assists and encourages the other groups that are participating in the awesome experience of Heartworks. Her goal is to publish the manual and see Heartworks groups become as commonplace as Oprah's book clubs in towns and cities across the country.

Dear Friend,

Thank you so much for visiting our website, I want to share with you a little bit about how and why Heartworks got started...

On the morning of September 11, 2001 I had just finished giving my daughter a spoonful of yogurt when the phone rang and my brother asked me if I had the television on. Life as my family knew it changed between that spoonful of yogurt and the next. My brother-in-law John W. Farrell never came home from his job in the Twin Towers. My sister Maryanne had dated him since she was 16, they were married with four children, Kaitlin, Patrick, Molly and Colin. John had been like a member of my close knit family since I was 7 years old.

There are no words to describe the agony and numbness of that first year.  I watched my sister struggle to catch her breath each morning. Day after day, my family organized the notes, flowers, donations, religious mementos and food that were brought to the house. Kids from California sent change from their piggy banks and money they had earned mowing lawns. Funds were set up, car pools were formed, meals were delivered through April. I remember a sensation of sinking...usually when I would wake up at her house each morning and remember what life had brought to us. By the time I walked downstairs, there was a coffee being delivered and a neighbor raking leaves...the phone would begin to ring and would not stop ringing until long after the kids had fallen asleep. I stopped several times a day and say a silent "thank you" for the friends, neighbors, professionals and complete strangers who were reaching out to her.  While the rest of the world may remember images of crashing planes and burning buildings, my nieces and nephews have memories of teddy bears made from their father's shirts, games and candy being delivered to the front door and hugs whenever they left the house. The show of kindness from all over the world would have brought us to our knees, if we were not already there.

I can not remember when it was exactly... but I remember clearly saying to myself that when we have our feet solidly on the ground again, I would spend the rest of my life "paying forward" all the kindness shown to my family. How could I not? My silent thank yous needed to be said out loud, and often, in a way that would benefit the world the way this kindness had affected my sister. September 11th was a very public tragedy, but people live everyday with private or less known struggles. I wanted to create a way of life that encouraged people to pay closer attention to these struggles and to the power of healing available through giving.  I knew that the scope of what I wanted to do would be impossible to accomplish on my own. I did not have the time, money or energy to pull off all the ideas I had. I knew I would need a group of people committed to the same idea to bring these ideas to the light.  We had moved back home to New Jersey from Colorado in March 2003. I was making friends but everything seemed so surface. There was too much talk about "things" and other people. I would leave lunches and dinners with great women still feeling a bit empty even though I had finished off appetizers, dinner and dessert.

I had been through too much awakening and had been too vulnerable in the past few years to coast along in relationships that felt anything less than authentic. And so the craving for something deeper continued. The idea came to me that I had to develop something with a base in spirituality..."YIKES! WHAT? Mention spirituality in a group of women? Talk openly about being conscious in our lives and steer away from gossip?  Maybe I should just stick with a book club..."  But I knew I could never go back to anything ordinary again-life is too short, and too unpredictable.

The name "Heartworks" came to me one morning and even though I was uncomfortable and afraid, I started the group.  It was four years ago that I said to my playgroup "I am going to start an Acts of Kindness group as a way of paying forward what has been done for my family, come to my house Tuesday night if you are interested."  Eight woman came that first Tuesday in October 2004. Now we have over 35 women at each meeting, 90 or so on our email support list and several chapters throughout the East Coast. We have been blessed with the opportunity to help countless people. I say this because one small act of kindness for one person inspires them to reach out to another and so on and so on. We recently had a fund raiser luncheon for a local family and a woman I had never met before came up to me and hugged me (this is not unusual...if you are going to do Heartworks you must get used to a lot of hugging) she hugged me and whispered " When my husband died last year, Heartworks gave me a lot of money in small bills for lunch money and errands... I am here to pay it forward to someone else."  I hear this feedback everywhere I go.

Please use any ideas from this website in your own life. Be present in your life, with what is comfortable as well as what is difficult. Be courageous, and reach out to others. Give when you can give and receive when it is your time to receive. You will be gifting your family as well as the world. Thank you for joining in the movement to continue what was born from September 11, 2001- A focus on what is really important in life, being present with yourself and your family and giving to others.
Be grateful and celebrate life today, regardless of what it may bring.

Thank You and Have a Grateful Day.

Love,
Megan