It is not everyday that one encounters someone whose beauty is its own excuse for being, if you can please pardon that classic line. Many times, our closest experience would be simply to gaze at their visage in some glossy publication, so perfect, so fashionable, so coolly beautiful, and oh so beyond reach.

We get so busy spinning our complex webs which we call life, going to and fro, frantically trying to make the connections, balancing on those fragile threads, trusting in its strength and tensility, and trying our best not to fall. Sometimes, along the way, we happen upon a connection so unexpected, so vibrant, we stop and take pause, we re-focus and see each other with a new clarity and sense of wonderment. We forget that we are merely hanging on a thread in this web we have spun, and we rediscover the joy and keening pleasure of encountering a genuine soul. Dr. Susan Lim is one of thoserare, generous souls.

Philippine award-winning actress of tv, film and stage, Cherie Gil, was born as Evangeline Rose G. Eigenmann. The variety and charm of her Filipino, Spanish, and Swiss-German lineage rendered her a striking personality and features that are interesting to get acquainted with.

A love for African Art and her culture is the inspiration behind Mlle Mallet’s African Plural Art Gallery.  Located in the diverse district of Fillmore, San Francisco, it is yet another cultural thread woven into the rich diversity of the area. Through carefully chosen objets d’art, tribal artifacts, and exquisite hand crafted items show-cased in her gallery, we are invited to experience the beauty of Africa, specifically West Africa, where magnificent Cote d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) is located.

As tired as the cliché is, there is nevertheless an innate truth to the idea that doctors become doctors to help people. This is what drives Dr. Wilson Tsai to practice medicine. Born into a family of Taiwanese immigrants, he learned at a very early age that cancer is a fatal malady that afflicted several members of his family. This unfortunate set of circumstances can be attributed in no small part to the decision to pursue medicine as a chosen vocation.