An artist who sings and writes about gentle kindness, multi-platinum musician Jewel Kilcher (1974-) was born on this day in Payson, Utah and grew up on an 800-acre homestead in Homer, Alaska. Dyslexic and unpopular, she coped with her loneliness by writing and fell in love with the written word.

She once observed with matter-of-fact honesty: "We are each others angels in the way that we answer each others prayers, and we can also make each others' lives miserable."

Her debut album, Pieces of You (1995) featured the haunting ballads, Who Will Save Your Soul and You Were Meant for Me.  With a distinctive, whispery soprano voice, the guitar-playing beauty has created a passionate rainbow of introspection with musical colors from pop, folk, blues, country, and Rock and Roll.

Jewel sings from the heart.

"My whole goal is to keep my spirit intact. If that doesn't happen, none of this is worth it," said the singer who in 1998 released her second album Spirit and best-selling collection of poetry, A Night Without Armor. Her CD, This Way (2001) celebrated love song with tinges of the Nashville sound.

Jewel was once so poor that she lived in her van. With success, she has become an advocate for humanitarian causes, including Project Clean Water which she founded in 1997. The non-profit organization is dedicated to finding safe water solutions for communities around the world.

"You don't have to compromise anything--your vision, your values. I've never been asked to change," she said.

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Choose kindness.