An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money. Only very expensive operation could save him now and there was no one to lend them the money.

When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother, “Only a miracle (something couldn’t happen) can save him now,” the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her money from its hiding place and counted it carefully.

She hurried to a drugstore (药店) with the money in her hand.

“And what do you want?” asked the salesman. “It’s for my little brother,” the girl answered. “He’s really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle.” “Pardon?” said the salesman.

“My brother Andrew has something bad growing in-side his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?” “We don’t sell a miracle here, child. I’m sorry,” the salesman said with a smile.

“Listen, if it isn’t enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs.”

A well-dressed man heard it and asked, “What kind of a miracle does your brother need?” “I don’t know,” she answered with her eyes full of tears. “He’s really sick and mum says he needs an operation. But my daddy can’t pay for it, so I have brought all my money.”

“How much do you have?” asked the man. “$1.11, but I can try and get some more,” she answered.

“Well, what luck,” smiled the man. “$1.11, the price of a miracle for little brothers.”

He took up the girl’s hand and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”

That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a famous doctor. The operation was successful and it wasn’t long before Andrew was home again.

How much did the miracle cost?

In 2009, Kevin Pearce was at the height of his professional snowboarding career and bound for the Winter Olympics. But in an instant, it came to an end. During training, he struck his head on the edge of a pipe, resulting in a traumatic (创伤的) brain injury. It changed the course of the then-22-year-old’s life.

He had to relearn how to walk and talk and essentially start over. His older brother Adam quit his job and moved across the country to help him through rehab.

He eventually started doing yoga, and his family saw how it transformed him and gave him a sense of hope: “It was the first time I remember so clearly coming out of a class with him and just seeing in his face this new expression, this new person.” Adam Pearce said, “We were like, ‘We need to figure out why and how that just happened.’”

Wanting to bring hope and healing to others through yoga and meditation (冥想). Adain and Kevin co-founded the Love YourBrain Foundation in 2014. The nonprofit offers week-long meditations and community-based yoga classes across the United States for people who are living with long-term brain-related disabilities. “I think people feel isolated after brain injury because they don’t feel able, and when you don’t feel able, you generally retreat back inside.” Adam said, “At these retreats, people are given the space to lean into those deep challenges and express them and talk about them.”

Ultimately, the organization aims to create a safe space and supportive community where people with brain-related disabilities can heal together. “Connection happens quickly because there’s such a shared common understanding among the group.” Adam said. “Once someone sees someone be vulnerable, it instantly allows the next person (to be). By the end, people start to see vulnerability as a superpower.”