A Circle of Giving

Last month my kindness idea allowed me to meet some new people in my community. When I delivered their food, I also gave each my phone number so they could keep in touch if they wanted.  All of them have called me since.

Having a bad spell with MS has left me pretty much in bed the last two or three weeks and feeling nearly helpless.

Yesterday, the young mother I had helped showed up at my house with a casserole. While she was here, she washed my dishes and carried out my trash. The young gentleman I had helped has been here twice, just to check on me. He has no transportation so he had to walk the several miles to where I live.

In helping others, I have made new friends . What a blessing.

-Reprinted from HelpOthers.org, posted by dotrut2001 on Dec 15, 2009

Understanding People is in Listening to Them

“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” -Ralph Nichols

Wrong Number Miracle:
The day before Thanksgiving, Lucy Crutchfield left a message on her daughter’s answering machine. The despair was evident in her voice. Crutchfield owed a mortgage payment on her home, but her daughter wasn’t even able to afford food for the coming week. Crutchfield left her a message saying that she would send money for the groceries — even though that meant she wouldn’t have enough to pay her monthly mortgage bill. But as it turned out, she had dialed a wrong number, leaving her heartbreaking message on a stranger’s machine. Instead of getting her daughter, she got Saenz, a real estate agent from the San Diego suburb of Tierrasanta.

“I know right now we are all struggling,” Saenz said. “Lucy on the phone, she sounded so desperate for her daughter, it broke my heart.”

Saenz did the only thing she could think of — she called Crutchfield back and said not to worry. Crutchfield would pay the mortgage, and Saenz would handle the groceries. [Read entire story here]

Be The Change:
The next time you hear someone’s despair, try to really listen and see what you can do to reach out to them.

15 ways to love your neighbor

Below are 15 Ways to Love Your Neighbor, by Joanne Brokaw.  Wonderful ideas!

Loving your neighbor doesn’t require a huge bank account or selling your possessions and moving to the desert (unless, of course, God is calling you to do that). Here are practical ways you can love your neighbors:

1. Write a note. In these days of electronic communication, receiving a handwritten note is a rare treat. Today, ask God to bring to mind someone who could use a little encouragement. Then take a few minutes to jot a quick note or postcard and drop it in the mail, just letting that person know you’re thinking about them.

2. Recycle. If we love God, then we love his creation, and taking care of the earth is one way you can be a good neighbor. You don’t have to hug a tree or buy a hybrid, but you should follow your town or city’s recycling rules and be conscious about properly disposing of garbage. It keeps your neighborhood streets looking neat and tidy and makes you a good steward of God’s resources.

3. Give blood. The American Red Cross estimates that “every two seconds someone in America needs blood” and over 4 million Americans donate to the cause. To learn more about donating blood visit your local American Red Cross.

4. Take a prayer walk. With the lovely days of summer upon us, go for a walk around your neighborhood, and pray for your neighbors as you stroll. Ask God to protect and bless your neighborhood, Read more

We are one, how may I help you – Dr. Rob Kiltz

Dr. Rob shares his words about all of us being one in this Universe and also offers an alternate thought pattern to judgment… try these words instead “How may I help you?”

Audio transcription:

Hello, Good Morning! Dr. Rob, another spectacular, awesome, amazing day in the universe. And we are all one, that is the reality of the universe and life. Strip our skin of each of our bodies. Now look at us, we all look exactly the same. Read more

Doing for others, the only thing worth doing

One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others. –Lewis Carroll

The Blue Sweater:
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there, the Cheshire Cat tells Alice when she asks for directions in Wonderland. But what if Alice had known exactly where she wanted to end up, and just didn’t know which road would get her there? That is the challenge that entrepreneurs with a social mission face every day. In her autobiography, The Blue Sweater, Acumen Fund founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz engagingly captures one such mission in need of the right road. In her case, she hopes to use the power of markets to achieve social transformation, primarily through providing economic opportunity to the poor and marginalized. Through the course of the book she proves herself one of the increasing number of “ordinary” people who accomplish the extraordinary. This article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review shares more. [Read more]

Be The Change:
Read the beginning of The Blue Sweater here.

Small gestures make a big impact

We often feel that we don’t have the time or energy to extend ourselves to others with the small gestures that compose what we call common courtesy. It sometimes seems that this kind of social awareness belongs to the past, to smaller towns and slower times. Yet, when someone extends this kind of courtesy to us, we always feel touched. Someone who lends a helping hand when we are struggling with our groceries makes an impression because many people just walk right by. Even someone who simply makes the effort to look us in the eye, smile, and greet us properly when entering a room stands out of the crowd. It seems these people carry with them the elegance and grace of another time, and we are always thankful for our contact with them. Common courtesy is a small gesture that makes a big difference. Read more

Giving the gift of you

To live harmoniously, we need to be supportive and helpful to all people, creatures, and plant life that share this earth with us. While “being of service” is part of being a good citizen of the world, it also feels good to help others. When we do something for others in service, without the expectation of anything in return, we are turning our actions into offerings.

There are many ways to be of service to our community. There are the obvious and much needed volunteer opportunities, such as serving Thanksgiving dinner at a shelter, mentoring our youth, or cleaning up a beach. Then, there is the kind of service that we may not even think of as being acts of service. Learning a new language (perhaps sign language) so that you can talk to more people is a way to reach out to others. Inviting someone who isn’t motivated enough to exercise on their own to join you on your daily walk is a way to give of yourself. Sharing flowers or vegetables from your garden, organizing a poetry reading, offering to babysit for a busy parent, or donating pet food to an animal shelter all are simple ways to offer your services to your community. Read more

Children watch and learn from us

~From HelpOthers.org, posted by wayfarer on Mar 1, 2009

Teenagers! What can I say? My daughter is 12. Sometimes she is a crazy bundle of fun and sometimes she seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. This was one of her down days.

She was bored and sad (and making a meal out of it!).  Every time she complained about being bored I would suggest something she could do, but there were always bucketloads of reasons why she couldn’t do any of them. The suggestion that she might enjoy tidying her bedroom just provoked a look that reminded me of thunderclouds — she’s been good at that look since she was two!

I was getting a little fed up with all this negativity, but I kept my patience.  I gently suggested that possibly the very best way in the world to have a good day was to try and make it a better day for someone else.  Then I suggested a few kind deeds she might like to do. Read more