Service
Dorothy.
March 31, 2021
7th Generation Principle
The Seventh Generation takes its name from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the founding document of the Iroquois Confederacy, the oldest living participatory democracy on Earth. It is based on an ancient Iroquois philosophy that:
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
On either side of the river is the tree of life…and the leaves of the tree are for healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more.- Revelation 22:2-3
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Community
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Ancestors
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Gaia
Silence, whispers and love.
February 22, 2021‘In the Bhagavad Gita we are told that we transcend our suffering to the degree that we are able to passionately employ our gifts in the service of others.’
-Rolph Gates & Katrina Kenison
‘Let us be silent so we may hear the whisper of God.’
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“One day, if you ever write a book, tell them you got this from your dying dad: ‘Love big, forgive always, do good, and don’t be an asshole’
‘L O V E. Let love lead your life and your choices. Let it become who you are, and just be grateful. For all of it. Life is really heard, but it’s also really good, and it’s all yours, my baby. So grab it hard, hold it tight, learn all you can. Experience everything, and when it comes time to let go, like I need to now, just be thankful for it all.’
-Seane Corn’s dad
(Seane’s dad passed from cancer around 10 years ago.)
MLK
January 18, 2021A
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“A friend of mine told me of a guru from Sri Lanka who asked, ‘What will be the undoing of humanity?’ He answered: ‘The separation between you and me.”
Ahimsa, nonviolence, asks us to abandon the notion of separation.”
-Rolf Gates
When nonviolence in speech, thought, and action is established, one’s aggressive nature is relinquished and others abandon hostility in one’s presence.’ -Yoga Sutras
“Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service; you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.” -Martin Luther King, Jr
Emerson Collective:
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This week, our nation will shift to new leadership and take the next step in creating a country rooted in justice and opportunity––a country we know is possible. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a 1967 speech at New York’s Riverside Church characterized these moments of transformation as “revolutionary times” when “new systems of justice and equality are being born.” As we look to this day as a moment to celebrate and honor Dr. King’s work, let’s take time to continue his legacy of forging a new and better day by serving our communities. Below are some ways to do so: |
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#1 – Volunteer with a number of organizations working in areas ranging from education to homelessness through the Presidential Inaugural Committee
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#2 – Volunteer to transcribe historical documents through the Smithsonian Digital Volunteer program
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#3 – Write letters to seniors who are in self-isolation with Letters Against Isolation
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#4 – Support our military and first-responders with Operation Gratitude
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#5 – Send a message of hope and healing to a child awaiting surgery through the World Pediatric Project
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#6 – Transcribe Library of Congress documents with By the People
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#7 – Help Food Pantries near you serving those who continue to face food insecurity
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#8 – Provide groceries to those who are at heightened risk for COVID-19 with Invisible Hands
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#9 – Strengthen emergency relief efforts with the American Red Cross
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#10 – Check out MLKDay.gov, which allows you to search additional volunteer opportunities in your community
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https://www.emersoncollective.com
Seth Godin
3 Types of Kindness
There is the kindness of ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ And the kindness of “I was wrong, I’m sorry.” The small kindnesses that smooth our interactions and help other people feel as though you’re aware of them. These don’t cost us much, in fact, in most settings, engaging with kindness is an essential part of connection, engagement and forward motion.
And then there is the kindness of dignity. Of giving someone the benefit of the doubt. The kindness of seeing someone for the person that they are and can become, and the realization that everyone, including me and you, has a noise in our heads, a story to be told, fear to be danced with and dreams to be realized.
And there’s another: The kindness of not seeking to maximize short-term personal gain. The kindness of building something for the community, of doing work that matters, of finding a resilient, anti-selfish path forward.
Kindness isn’t always easy or obvious, because the urgent race to the bottom, to easily measured metrics and to scarcity, can distract us. But bending the arc toward justice, toward dignity and toward connection is our best way forward.
Kindness multiplies and it enables possiblity. When we’re of service to people, we have the chance to make things better.
Happy Birthday, Reverend King.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
February 7, 2020
For your service, for your loyalty, for love of country, for your compassion, for truth, thank you, Lt. Vindman. You are a patriot. Love to your brother, and your family.
“LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” his attorney, David Pressman, said in a statement. “The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career and his privacy.”
V O T E
And to your brother, Yevgeny Vindman, our deepest apologies.
Feb. 4, 1968
February 4, 2018“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
-MLK
A year of service.
December 29, 2017
Full Moon is Monday, January 1st
Spend some good intentional time and using your emotions, intuition and imagination, set your dreams and desires for the coming year if you have not already done so. If you have, then spend a bit of time either expanding your imagination of what is possible or trying those dreams on energetically.
This is also a very good time to set specific intentions of how you wish and need to serve yourself in the coming weeks and months. This is a year of service and service needs to start with you personally. If you can’t serve yourself, you cannot be of support and service to others. This is a nurturing moon that will inspire you to clean your nest, do your laundry, and focus on how to make your home environment more supportive to you this year. Remember it does not all have to get done today, but you can still set concrete intentions of what you wish to see happen in the coming year.
-Power Path
‘Carved by effort and grace.’
April 4, 2017
Introduction to Walt Whitman’s journal, Specimen Days, by Leslie Jamison:
‘Whitman initially journeyed to the battlefields of the Civil War for personal reasons. After seeing a name he feared was his brother George listed among wartime casualties, in December 1962, he headed to Fredericksburg, where he discovered George had only suffered minor facial lacerations. But this was just the beginning. Whitman started visiting soldiers in hospitals-tens of thousand, all told-and doing what he could: writing letters to families, dressing wounds, bringing treats-rice pudding or blackberry syrup. He once distributed ice cream to all eighteen wards of Carver Hospital.
The goal of a life is to have nothing essential left by the time it leaves its body, the way a flame uses up its wick. This is not sad but as it should be.
-Mark Nepo
♥
Let’s be honest
which doesn’t mean
being harsh, but gentle.
Let’s be clear
which doesn’t mean being dispassionate, but
holding each other up
in the face of what is true.
Let’s be enduring
which doesn’t mean
being important or famous,
but staying useful like a wheel
worn by rain after years of
carrying each other’s burdens.
-Mark Nepo
♥
Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.
-Rumi
Service.
July 26, 2016
Charlie Mike-‘The Best War Book of 2015’
November 16, 2015
They came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with psychological wounds that healed only in helping brothers and strangers. Here, an excerpt from Joe Klein’s new book, Charlie Mike.
From ‘The Daily Beast’