Checking In

I am currently in a state of transformation, which has made me rather uncommunicative, but I am sending out four blessing boxes this week. I've had some fun with acrylics, growing in my capabilities to decorate beautifully. And I'm working on some more art and word combos to add to blessing packages. But I need more requests to fill!

Don't Blame the Lettuce

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."--Thich Nhat Hanh

On Accepting Generosity

I just had an interesting experience within my social circle that made me realize I have some deep-seated issues about accepting generosity from others. I have trouble believing/assuming that anyone would want to be generous with me, even those nearest and dearest to me. And I suffer severe awkwardness when I receive generosity. I always express my gratitude, but I feel so weird about the attention on me.

It's my birthday on Saturday, some friends want to acknowledge it with a lunch tomorrow, and I feel awkward about it. I don't really do parties or get a lot of gifts and that's ok with me. But the last few years I have always had meaningful acknowledgements from others that they want to celebrate that I exist. That is really what a birthday celebration is; we are saying that we are glad that person was born and is still living. Why can't I enjoy a celebration of my life without marring it with a belief that somehow I don't deserve the attention? Why do I see myself as so much less than the people I want to celebrate and honor?

Last Friday I went to a lunch with my former Board of Directors, the people who just laid me off due to their own failures in fiscal leadership. I was very nervous about it. To the point of physical discomfort. One, because I had never been in a purely social situation with them before. Two, because I was concerned it would be awkward considering the circumstances. I know they feel terrible about having to lay me off. Three, and I think the most relevant, because it felt weird to have a lunch in honor of me. One of the ways I talked myself through the nervousnes was to realize that it was an act of generosity on my part to allow them to express their appreciation for me. That made it easier for me to accept. But I obviously have some self-work I need to do in order to accept my value in the eyes of others. It is really tough for me to consider the idea that I am worthy of celebration and honoring. How sad is that?

Receiving generosity with joy is just as important as being generous joyfully. When I consider the immense joy I feel when I am able to be generous with others, I realize I am shortchanging those who are generous with me by not accepting that they want to give to me. I am keeping them from that experience of joyful generosity. I am being unfair to those I love when I refuse to acknowledge that they could find joy in bringing me joy.

I am being unfair to myself when I don't accept my own worthiness of expressions of love, kindness, and generosity.

Declaration of Interdependence

We hold this truth to be self-evident:
We are All.
In This.
Together.

Therefore we live this truth
in our lives, communities and societies,
and thrive together into a long future
that we create together.

We are the world
that is awakening
to both the fact and the opportunity
of our interdependence
--fully, finally and beyond a shadow of doubt.

We are the world
who are making
ourselves a good world
that works for all people and all life.
Because we know the Greatest Secret
of All:

"We are All
in this
together."
-- Tom Atlee, June 2003

Lovely Book Excerpt

"If we really want to heal our world, we'd better find an antidote beyond the topical remedies of truces and treaties. If war is an infection in the human system, its cure must lie in strengthening what it most directly attacks: our capacity for compassion.

True, it takes a discerning eye to see vulnerability behind the fright-mask of those who oppress us. Martin Luther King used to portray his racist adversaries as broken people, living in spiritual exile, in need of a forgiveness only the oppressed could grant them. He inspired among his followers a paradoxical sense of empowerment: it was only they, the victims, who could heal the damaged souls of their enemies, by moving them to mercy and leading them out of hatred's wilderness…

These days, the notion of building a more compassionate world takes a backseat to the dictates of security. It is a time of the hard-eyed realists. The Secretary of Defense sardonically quotes Al Capone: "You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone." The peacemakers have been banished to the kids' table with the rest of the utopians. It is said we've crossed an historic threshold, from an interregnum of innocence to a New Age of Terror.

I don't believe it. Yes, there is awful public tragedy, wrenching private sorrow, the dire clangor of arms. Plague-dogs of rage and cynicism roam the planet's nameless back alleys (and some name-brand front offices, too). And we are not safe. I read it in the Times; I can read it in Thucydides. It is a long battle, this struggle between love and hate. But to live in a climate of fear, with its color-coded thermometer-readings, means that men with box cutters, bullets, and bombs sit above us like kings. The hermetic paradox still holds: In the poison is the medicine. Hatred only summons forth its unconquerable opposite. Still, if love is ever to triumph, it's not just knocking the haters off their thrones. What we need is a regime change of the heart."

From Marc Ian Barasch's Field Notes on a Compassionate Life

More Blessing Wisdom

More Blessing Wisdom from Kate Nowak:

"Have you ever given much thought to what a blessing really is and how it works? Although there are numerous definitions, most of them fringed with religious connotation, a blessing is basically an expression of Good. It is a way of conferring happiness and prosperity upon another, a sign of unconditional approval, and a conduit between souls.

A blessing acknowledges Good that is inherent in our world. Burdens, pain, suffering and lack flee from a blessing the way darkness flees from light. It is impossible to bless someone else without being blessed in return because when our minds are focused on offering good to another, there is no room for thoughts of our own troubles and woes. And in that moment when our thoughts are removed from that which bothers us, it loses its power over us.

A blessing is the most divine expression of unconditional love we are capable of expressing. By embracing the true essence of a blessing, we keep love circulating. We become One with those we bless. That is what a blessing is."

"Even the thought of giving, the thought of blessing or a simple prayer has the power to effect others." -- Deepak Chopra

Wisdom on Blessings

"Though not always visible, there is within everyone and everything a divine and holy spark of goodness. Whenever we bless any person, situation, or thing in our lives, we are, in essence, recognizing that goodness, acknowledging its inherent value, and in so doing, fanning the spark into a flame. Each and every time we bless another, we don't just make a difference, we heal the world.

Just imagine what would happen if everyone involved in this experiment -- all the million plus people who have viewed the movie in the past 100 days -- if all of us spent the next 24 hours letting our lives be a blessing to others. Just imagine the changes that would occur if in each and every encounter, we offered a blessing of hope and joy and love. Imagine what would happen if in every situation, even those perceived as difficult or bad, we insisted on recognizing the good within and began to bless that good into being. Just imagine what a powerful difference that would make. In 24 hours, we could make an impact that would shake the world. One million plus blessings going out moment by moment, over and over again, hour after hour after hour. Just imagine the impact such a crescendo of blessings would have.

Blessing another person or a situation is not difficult, in fact, it is the easiest thing to do. It takes only the time necessary to think a good thought, which is little time indeed. Despite its simplicity, however, it has a ripple effect that will continue long after the initial blessing has been forgotten. With enough of us actively blessing others, the ripple could be immensely strengthened, building with each blessing until it becomes a quake of goodness strong enough to be felt across the universe. We have the ability to cause a true tsunami of blessings. Right now at this very moment, with nothing more than our silent agreement to ban together, we can begin to radically and forever change the world."

Kate Nowak, who created the May You Be Blessed movie and One Million Blessings Project

Fun!

I've created a Frappr Map to show where all the blessings I've sent so far have gone. As of today, I have sent 75 blessings out into the world, including England, South Africa, and India!

Update

I haven't updated my progress on the Conspiracy in awhile. I have several requests I'm filling this week as I enjoy my first week of being unemployed (I'm trying to see it as a much needed vacation). I'm also sending packages to all of the staff over at Zaadz for the wonderful work they are doing. I find that focusing on giving and creating keeps the worries about next month's bills being paid at bay. So request more blessings!

I am working on an article about the Conspiracy and how I feel I'm making a difference in the world for possible publication at one of my favorite websites. My hope is this article will help me develop my ideas about generosity in our culture and future developments with the project, as well as bring some much needed publicity to my little niche in the web. I'll let you know if and when it's actually published.

No Going Back

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.
~ Wendell Berry ~

Rilke is a Blessing to Us All

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

A Unique Twist on Creative Generosity

Check out Knitta.