i thank You God for this most amazing day

i thank You God for this most amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e.cummings

Generosity Hero: Art in the Park

"The artist is not a special kind of person;
rather each person is a special kind of artist."
~ Ananda Coomaraswamy

Demetrio O. Braceros nurtures a garden and has carved over 100 pieces of wood sculpture for the Cayuga Street Park in San Francisco.

From the article at Conversations.org... "What is it that you’re doing here so much from your heart? What I remember is this, his reading the situation and summarizing: "I wanted to inspire the kids."

I didn’t get the details about how he was given responsibility for the undeveloped parcel of land on Cayuga Street, but it happened in 1986, twenty years ago. At that time the place was just a raw stand of weeds and unkempt trees. In the neighborhood, he told us, "there were prostitutes, drug dealers and crime. People got killed up there," Demetrio told us, pointing to houses along the southern edge of the park. It was bad.

"I thought to myself, how can I help this place?" he told us. Speaking to Carlo, he tried to explain himself by quoting a biblical reference, "Let there be Light." It was hard to make out the words. Demetrio took Carlo by the arm and we all walked over to another one of his sculptures, a bust which might have been the head of Jesus. It was hard to say, but under it was written, "Let there be Light." Demetrio pointed to it. "There was darkness here," he said. "Evil. It needed light."

"These are not mine," he said, speaking of all the pieces of sculpture he’d made. Across the language barrier I made out something like this: "Whatever this creative ability it is that has been given to me, it is not mine to claim for myself, but to use for the good of all.""

Tomorrow's Blessings

I am sending out two blessing packages with art dolls tomorrow: one to New Mexico on behalf of a friend to a woman having a rough time in her life and one to Miami, Florida for a Zaadzster who needs a "bushel of blessings".

I also used some birthday money to get some beautiful new fabrics and glass beads for the transformation dolls, so make more requests and give these beauties homes!

The Power of Anyone

From Charityfocus.org's Daily Inspiration...

"It all started with a feisty ten-year-old named Talia Leman, who watched the Katrina devastation on TV and decided to do something about it. She launched an online campaign to convince kids just like her to give up candy for Halloween and instead, collect money door-to-door.The idea took. Plastic pumpkins overflowed with small change. Dollar bills filled former candy sacks. In three months, random kids across America raised $5 million dollars. Talia's group, now called RandomKid.org, has raised over $10 million dollars for hurricane relief so far. They call it the "Power of Anyone," urging kids to recognize that they can help bring about big change. Says Leman, "Just start with something little. Pick up the candy wrapper on the sidewalk, or recycle pop cans and donate the money to something. It feels great to help others.""

The Rose Man (A Generosity Hero)

This is just awesome…

The fragrance always remains on the hand that gives the rose. –Mahatma Gandhi

“In Lake Placid, Florida, the local superhero is an 85-year-old retiree known simply as “The Rose Man.” The Rose Man – a.k.a. Willard Campbell – started using his petal power 20 years ago: “The idea hit me – Well, if I've got excess roses, why don't I take 'em and give 'em to the patients in the hospital?” Today, he not only brings free, weekly roses to just about every business in town, he brings them to just about every person in every business in town. Spending 10 hours a day driving around town, The Rose Man guesstimates giving about 25,000 roses every year.

Why does Willard do it?

“Because, first, I want to keep busy. And I enjoy it. And I enjoy giving them away. And I like to see the smiles on the people's faces that gets 'em,” he says.

“A lot of women say, 'I want to hug your neck.' Well, I don't do it for the hug on my neck. I get all the hugs I want here,” Willard says, referring to Opal, his grade-school sweetheart and wife of 65 years.

“I feel like if there was only one rose bouquet, that I would be the one to get it,” says Opal.

They lived in Kentucky, where Willard worked as a homebuilder before retiring to Lake Placid - if you can call it retiring. Willard spends up to 10 hours a day preparing and delivering roses to the delight of appreciative office workers.”

More here.

Pronoia

SACRED UPROAR

Pronoia is closer than your breath and older than death. It dreams like a mountain, laughs like a river, prays like the sun, and sings the way the animals think. It's always as fresh as the beginning of time.

*

Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy designed to keep us well supplied with blessings. What kind of blessings? Palatial homes, attractive lovers, lottery winnings, career success? Maybe. But just as likely: interesting surprises, unexpected challenges, gifts we hardly know what to do with, conundrums that force us to get smarter.

Novelist William Vollman referred to the latter types of blessings when he said that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that's a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don't know how to solve."

*

The Christian writer C.S. Lewis once said: "I thank God that He hasn't given me all the things I've prayed for, because as I look back now I realize it would have been disastrous to have received some of them."

Pronoia provides the gifts your soul needs, not necessarily those your ego craves.

*

Pronoia works because there is a Divine Being who comprises the entire universe. When I say, "Life is a conspiracy to shower us with blessings," I understand that this Divine Being is the Chief Architect, Builder, and Manager of the conspiracy, overseeing the evolution of 500 billion galaxies and everything in them, yet also available as an intimate companion and daily advisor to every one of us.

*

The Maker of the conspiracy constantly tinkers, always keeping the big picture in mind and moving in the direction of ultimate blessings for all concerned. But the Maker also loves getting help from us. To the degree that we co-conspire, the inevitable blessings ripen more lyrically and in greater fullness.

*

Pronoia asks us to be attuned to the shifting conditions of the Maker's ever-fresh creation. It encourages us to be quite happy about regularly divesting ourselves of the beliefs and theories that guided us yesterday so that we can see clearly what's right in front of us today.

Excerpt from Pronoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings by Rob Brezny