Last Tuesday I was invited to participate in a party for Tuesday’s Children, an organization that helps children with the AIDS virus. I was asked to attend because I’m on a television show. I don’t think that most of the kids recognized me as a famous person, but as a big kid who came to play with them for the day. I think I liked it better that way. At the party, they had all kinds of activities. I was drawn to one in particular because all the children were taking part in it. In that activity, anyone who wanted to participate could paint a square. Later all the painted squares were going to be sewn together to make a wall hanging. The wall hanging would be presented to a man who had devoted much of his life to this organization and would soon be retiring. They gave everyone some paints in bright, beautiful colors, and asked the kids to paint something that would make the wall hanging beautiful. As I looked around at all the squares, I saw pink hearts and bright blue clouds, beautiful orange sunrise, and green and purple flowers. The pictures were all bright, positive, and uplifting. All except for one. The boy sitting next to me was painting a heart, but it was dark, empty, and lifeless. It lacked the bright, lively colors that his fellow artists had used. At first I thought maybe he took the only paint that was left and it just happened to be dark. But when I asked him about it, he said his heart was that color because his heart felt dark and he was very sick. He said that his sickness was not ever going to get better. He looked straight into my eyes and said, “There is nothing anyone can do that will help.” I told him I was sorry that he was sick and I could certainly understand why he was so sad. I could even understand why he had made his heart a dark color. But I also told him that it isn’t true that there is nothing anyone can do to help. Other people may not be able to make him better, but we can do things like sharing our time and our love, which in my experience can really help when people are feeling sad. I told him that if he liked, I would be happy to spend some time talking with him so that he could see what I meant. But instead of talking with me, he did something different. He instantly came near to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. When he did this, I felt my own heart had burst with the love for this sweet little boy. He sat there talking with me for a long time and when he had had enough, he jumped down to finish his coloring. I asked him if he felt any better and he said that he did, but he was still sick and nothing would change that. I told him I understood. I walked away feeling sad, but I determined that I would do whatever I could to help. As the day was coming to and end and I was getting ready to head home, I felt a slight pull on my jacket. I turned around and found the little boy was standing there with a smile on his face. He said, “My heart is changing colors. It is getting brighter. I think love really does work.” On my way home I felt my own heart and realized it, too, had changed to a brighter color.