Creating a Sense of Gratitude in your Life. Every Day.

To start the year off right, try these simple practices to cultivate gratitude.  When you're feeling blue or frustrated, use them as tools to get you back to a positive head space.

Stop Complaining.  About people, situations and events that make you unhappy, sad or depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy.  No situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to.

Commit To Your Goals.  When we look for positivity in the little things that make our lives worthwhile, we leave no room for negativity and our goals come to the forefront. Instead of recounting all events of the day, filter out only the positive ones and make a note of them. It could be anything trivial, from your bus arriving on time, your mom cooking a delicious breakfast, to remembering to pay the bills on time. You would not believe how this helps you achieve your goals — by clearing the mind.

Be Kind.  To yourself and others.  It's scientifically proven to make you feel good.  Helping someone selflessly releases serotonin in your brain and hence makes you feel good about yourself almost instantly. Try doing one act of kindness every day to flush out the toxins of depression from your system.

Practice Forgiveness.  Hatred is a negative feeling and harboring it will have nothing but negative effects on your well-being. Stop thinking about the hateful emotion/person and let it go. Remember to forgive yourself too.  

Release The Past.  When you find yourself thinking that the past looked so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening - Stop.  Remember that the present is all you have.  Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

Be Optimistic.  Treat failure as an opportunity to learn a new and better lesson from life.  Never give up trying. Once you start harboring an optimistic attitude towards life, success will automatically follow.

Don't be Afraid to Dream.  Dreams motivate, inspire and expand our sense of self. They also make us happy because they give our lives a sense of purpose. Happy people usually love what they do, and if they don’t, they love who they are. Dreams remind us who we are.

Care For Your Body. Your physical condition has a direct connection with your well-being. A fit body and healthy mind is reflective of happiness. Start working towards the
health of your physical, mental and emotional energy by caring for your body.  Exercise and meditation help calm your nerves, soothe your mind and elevate your mood.

Give.  Cultivate a habit of sharing with others — your money, knowledge, service, wisdom, care, love.  Giving has many unexpected benefits from attracting more happiness into your life, to inspiring others, and changing the lives of those you touch. In the end the whole world is made into a better place. Ask, “how can I serve?” Pay it forward. Give freely.

By practicing these steps daily and being conscious of them, you will learn gratitude at a level you could never appreciate before. You’re made out of love, and there’s an opportunity at every corner to show it.  Excerpted from wake Up World

 

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”  - Denis Waitley

Growing Your Community

As I mentioned, a community can start with just one, and build one person at a time. 

 

One of the big tricks in our present world is to get people off of their devices to begin engaging with people, strangers, face to face.  One of the simplest ways to do this to engage people when they already inclined to open themselves up - over the holidays.  Then, use some creativity to make a welcoming environment where people can connect.  Doing this one-on-one can be intimidating, but once the group starts to build, a group environment dramatically lessens peoples fears. 

 

Another interesting tactic is to make your community more closed.  Allow each member of the community to invite 1 person per month.  If every member did this, the community would grow by 100% every month.  The exclusivity and being allowed to invite just 1 friend/colleague per month may encourage people to actually to find someone they really want in the community, and who they believe to be a good fit. 

Communities are like gardens, which can whither away by applying too much pressure and the wrong amount of water. Finding the balance for your unique community will take some trial and error.  But what creates an environment where people are motivated to build and grow the community together?

 

Articulate your vision.  Having a strong vision and really understanding your community will help create the forum where people are motivated to contribute.

 

Select your Community Manager. While it's the job of everyone to make sure the community works, there absolutely needs to be someone responsible for its health. Key attributes of this person is that they need to show up, be inspiring, know how to delegate, listen to and use feedback, and be a team player.

 

Make people feel invested in success.  Focus on the importance of starting small and involving the community in the process of building it. Too often, communities are launched with much fanfare and excitement, without asking members what they need. Invite your members to build the community with you early on. If you have a critical mass of people, content and conversations already in the community, you will show, not tell, new members what they can do. This will give them further motivation to participate. And the more that your members are involved, the more likely they are to educate others and entice them to participate.

 

Increase awareness of community. Can you partner with other like-minded groups?  Do you celebrate your success as a group?  Do you have ongoing ways for members to participate?  These are all important for helping your community to thrive.

 

Always think about building and growing.  Be sure you are constantly welcoming, encouraging and educating new members. The community manager is often the person paying it forward for everyone else, but be sure to allow enough flexibility to function without him/her. Developing community champions -- from the ranks of your early members, and new members who show desire and proclivity to lead -- is the number one job of the community manager. As more and more people join in, it's important to help them find their own why and how. Putting champions in charge of enabling their own groups helps increase motivation and builds the value of each individual contributor.

 

 

 

Building a Strong Community (Part 2)

Here are 5 things you can do right now to improve your chances of building a strong community:

 

1. Actively engage people.  The foundation of a strong, wise, resilient community is people knowing and actively engaging with each other.
2. Start a group.  It could be a neighborhood sports team, a neighborhood association, book club, greenspace project, dinner exchange, neighborhood watch group, etc.  The goal is to bring people together and let the connections blossom organically.
3. Throw a party.  Nothing brings people together, of all ages, like having a good time.  And usually involving food.
4. Clean up the neighborhood.  Again, this could be a greenspace project, graffiti removal, art project, etc.  Simple projects where people of all stripes come together nurture community pride and mutual admiration.
5. Provide opportunities for learning.  Everyone in a community knows something someone else would love to learn, it's just a matter of connecting them.

There are good resources out there for more ideas and suggestions.  One is CommunityMatters. CommunityMatters is an organization that equips cities and towns to strengthen their places and inspire change. They champion the idea that through transparent, collaborative conversations, communities can steer change at home. And they offer tools, resources and expertise.

Any new project may seem daunting from the start, but it just takes one person to spark the change.  People want a strong community.  Build it one person at a time.

 

Building a Strong Community (Part 1)

Thanks in part to the global economic and environmental crises, individuals and agencies throughout the world are rediscovering the power of community. Community is the engine of people powered change. Government is effective, especially in terms of monetary support, but there's no substitute for people identifying with and caring for one another and the place they share.  Strong communities are the key to holding government accountable for protecting the rights of the most vulnerable. Social justice never comes from the top-down. People must be organized to support one another but also to demand that their government provide what the community can't or shouldn't do for itself. There are some things best done by community, some by government, and some that can only be accomplished by working in true partnership.
 

Communities have a unique role to play when it comes to much of what we most value – our environment, safety, welfare, health and happiness. Moreover, communities possess the local knowledge, passion, creativity, sustainability and holistic perspective that are often lacking in bureaucracies.

When we focus on people's needs, they become clients in a service system. When we focus on their strengths, they become citizens of a community. Everyone has both needs and strengths and everyone requires services as well as community, but we tend to divide our society into two camps – those with needs and those with strengths. When we fail to utilize everyone's strengths, our communities are less inclusive and powerful and the labeled individuals miss the joy of connection and contribution.  Excerpted from The Guardian

People can, and often will, come together in strong, united communities if they're encouraged and supported to:

• have shared aspirations, values and experiences
• have a strong sense of mutual commitments and obligations, promoting personal and social responsibility
• take part in local and national life and decision-making
• fulfil their potential to get on in life
• challenge extremism and hate crime

What have you done lately to help strengthen your community?


 

Expanding Nature in Your Community

If you're looking for an activity that people of all ages can enjoy, start a community garden.  Rallying support from your neighbors, friends or local organizations is a great way to start a garden in your back yard - so to speak.  From personal health to neighborhood development to environmental impact, the benefits of community gardening are increasingly good and overwhelmingly shared.  Community gardens have helped introduce healthier lifestyles into the homes of young and old for generations - and continue to grow today. 

Community Gardens

• Increase a sense of community ownership and stewardship

• Foster the development of a community identity and spirit

• Bring people together from a wide variety of backgrounds (age, race, culture, social class)

• Build community leaders

• Provide a focal point for community organizing, and can lead to community-based efforts to deal with other social concerns

Begin by bringing people and different organizations together to learn which issues are important to your community.  Discuss how a community garden – whether a communal space or individual plots – could serve the needs of the community.  Develop a plan of action.  Get people energized and organized.

Then, start gardening and implementing your community garden program. Once the project is up and running, let everyone know!  Gain greater community support by welcoming visitors and sharing updates on how the neighborhood is benefiting from the garden’s existence. Over time, revisit the plan and make any needed changes based on lessons learned or feedback from partners and neighbors.  Remember to plan ahead so that the garden will continue to grow for seasons, and generations, to come.

Follow these 10 steps to get yours started now.

Though it may be too soon to call it an urban wildlife movement, initiatives focused on urban greening and biodiversity seem to be catching on. The U.S. Forest Service, which once laughed off the idea that anything urban could be wild now supports a growing urban forest program.  Research has shown that oaks benefit everything from caterpillars to songbirds. Urban ecology and urban wildlife programs are also proliferating on university campuses. And in Baltimore County, officials now stipulate that canopy trees, rather than ornamental trees, must make up 80 percent of any planting on county land, and half of them need to be oaks. In an area where local nurseries hardly ever stocked oaks before, people sometimes balk, until the county’s natural resource manager, Don Outen, explains the logic of it: Research has shown that oaks benefit everything from caterpillars to songbirds. Even fish prosper, because the aquatic invertebrates they feed on favor oak leaves on stream bottoms. At that point, says Outen, the reaction tends to shift to, "Why haven’t we been doing this before?"  Accommodating wildlife in cities doesn’t necessarily require massive investment - you can bring in more birds just by cutting out pavement, or breaking up endless lawns with the right kinds of shrubs. Mowing those lawns a little less often - not weekly but every two or three weeks - will increase the population of native bees and other pollinators. Excerpted from Environment 360
 

 

The role of parks, community gardens, and green open spaces in urban areas is often underestimated, and the potential of these areas to improve both the quality of life of city dwellers and urban sustainability is not always being fully realized.  To make dramatic change, city governments need to get on-board and facilitate the change.  But, even a small group in a local community can do amazing things.

You can learn even more in the book, The Guide to Greening Cities. 

Nature. Community. Home.

Most of the time when people think about nature they think of places untouched by humans. “Nature” is often considered something that exists far away from cities. In reality, the division between nature and city is blurry. There is nature all around the city, even inside our homes.

You can find urban nature by:

Taking an early morning walk. Even in the busiest city you can find more animals in the early morning before the day’s bustle begins. Walk around your neighborhood, or your neighborhood park, as close to sunrise as possible, and see what animals you can spot. You might see bugs, worms, birds, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, rats, and mice. (Animals that many people think of as pests are part of nature too!)

Volunteering for a park invasive species removal. This is a great way to learn about plants in your city. Invasive species can harm native plants and animals.  Help restore the natural ecosystem.

Planting a community garden. A community garden has numerous benefits from community building, to health, to education.  Delicious and nutritious for the mind, body and soul of a community.  I'll expand in more detail on my next post.

Planting trees.  Many city agencies and organizations have initiatives to plant more trees. Having more trees helps reduce the urban heat island effect and promotes the well-being of its inhabitants, both human and animal.

For families, you can also start your own Wild Playgroup. When children connect with nature, they also connect with each other, their families and the community as they learn that they are part of something bigger than themselves. Their sense of identity and character is strengthened. Through experiences in nature, children can become passionate stewards of their special outdoor places. Additionally, adults are more likely to take care of their local environment if they have had time to experience it as a child. Learn more and download a toolkit here.

 

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act into law.  The primary author, Howard Zahniser, felt that given enough time, a majority of Americans would come to believe in the deep power of nature and support conservation.  He was sure that the challenge lay not so much in converting avowed opponents of the Wilderness Act, but in enlisting the support of the silent majority.  And he had an unwavering faith in education as the vital tool for getting people to make this step.  "It is a step that is so difficult no because it goes so far but because it must be taken by so many," he said in 1961.  "A whole nation steps forward with purpose in the enactment of such legislation, and it marches only when so many are ready to go that the others must move too."

 

"We have come to realize that we ourselves are creatures of the wild... that in the wilderness we are at home, that in maintaining thus our access to wilderness we are not, as some have thought, escaping from life, but rather are keeping ourselves in touch with our true reality, the fundamental reality of the universe of which we are a part."  - Howard Zahniser

 

Lessons from the Wild #10

hum·ble (adjective)

1.  not proud or arrogant; modest
2.  having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.
3.  low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.
4.  courteously respectful
5.  low in height, level, etc.

Is humility practical?  How do we practice the virtue of humility in such a competitive world?

How can anyone achieve success without ambition and a competitive spirit? Who doesn't feel elated and proud after accomplishing something great?

On the surface, humility appears to be a foreign concept in our modern world.

We can all agree that humility is an admirable quality in others, because we feel comfortable around people who are humble. But when it comes to ourselves, we may consider humility a hindrance to success and a by-product of failure. Perhaps, humility seems to make sense only when we feel defeated. Then, we can at least claim that we've learned the important virtue of humility, until we are ready to get back on our feet to fight yet another battle. Though it seems rational, this line of reasoning actually prevents us from achieving a deeper understanding of the virtue of humility.

Real humility means having a healthy perspective of one’s own abilities (suffering neither egotism nor low self esteem) as well as one’s own limitations and a value for the importance and abilities of others.

In most religions, humility is a sign of respect for a higher power -

• Christianity provides the classic religious statement of humility, "Blessed be the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).
• In Islam (which itself means surrender), humility is a primary virtue.
• Taoism focuses believers' thoughts on the awesome beauty and wonder of Nature. As you ponder the magnificence of Nature, you learn to respect our place relative to the stars and the seasons - a humbling experience.
• Buddhism teaches that, through humility, one can release anger and learn to live a life free from attachments and suffering.

For me, wandering through a vast and majestic landscape is incredibly humbling.  It's where I feel most a part of something larger than myself, and where I also feel most vulnerable.

I've recently been reading an interesting biography of Howard Zahniser, an early American environmental activist and primary author of the Wilderness Act of 1964.  Zahniser was a gifted writer and eloquently wrote about the importance of nature, and wilderness:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

In preserving Wilderness we are essentially preserving an endangered experience, and an endangered idea — the idea that self-willed landscape has value and should exist.

Wilderness offers the opportunity to experience a relationship between humans and nature that is increasingly rare in our modern world, a relationship in which humans do not dominate, manipulate, or control nature but instead immerse ourselves as a member in the larger community of life. 

“Without the gadgets, the inventions, the contrivances whereby men have seemed to establish among themselves an independence of nature, without these distractions, to know wilderness is to know a profound humility, to recognize one’s littleness, to sense dependence and interdependence, indebtedness, and responsibility.”  - Howard Zahniser

Keeping the idea of Wilderness alive requires our participation in a special relationship with these landscapes that is very different from the utilitarian, commodity-oriented manner in which modern society generally interacts with nature. Preserving the idea of Wilderness requires humans to exercise humility and restraint, not dominance over the land and its natural processes. The opportunity to experience this kind of relationship with nature is an increasingly rare experience in our modern world. Designated Wilderness is the only landscape where this form of interaction between humans and the rest of nature is written into law.

“A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the axe] he is writing his signature on the face of the land.”  - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Embrace the virtue of humility and all it can offer:

• By remaining humble, you are receptive to opportunities to improve.
• Humility is a virtue for inner well-being. Frustrations and losses don’t have the same impact if you don’t get your ego involved. If you combine humility with motivation, you have the ability to drive towards successes without letting the failures knock you out of balance.

“By seeing the seed of failure in every success, we remain humble. By seeing the seed of success in every failure we remain hopeful.” - Unknown

Lessons from the Wild #9

Leave-no-trace camping is an increasingly popular, and necessary, approach to travel in wilderness areas. As the term suggests, the goal is for the camper to have as little impact as possible on the location they are visiting. One of its mottos is "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints."

The principles of "Leave No Trace" were developed in response to concerns that the increasing number of human visitors to previously uninhabited (or lightly inhabited) wilderness areas would destroy the very characteristics that make them attractive, and irreparably harm native species. While each individual visitor might have an insignificant impact, the cumulative effect of thousands, and even millions of visitors to a site over the years would be profound. Rather than removing humanity altogether from these environments, leave-no-trace camping seeks to minimize the changes we make just by visiting. It's also a courtesy to the people who'll be visiting the same place the next day, or the next year, giving them a chance to experience the area the same way you did.  

Here's a great list of 29 Leave No Trace principles to keep in mind.  

Because I do so much backcountry camping, and like to go cross-country (where there are no established trails) the approach is almost the opposite. Rather than trying to concentrate your impact (such as on a single trail) the idea is to disperse it as much as possible. Try to avoid following trails others have left, because that tends to make them larger and more damaging. Several people walking single-file etches your shared trail more deeply, but each member of your party can instead tread more lightly on their own path. Walk on the most durable ground you can: rock instead of dirt, dead grasses instead of live plants, dry soil instead of muddy. 

Once you start practicing Leave No Trace, you'll wonder why it took you so long to get the hang of it.  Wilderness is a rare and precious thing, and it's up to us to be its stewards.  Unfortunately, many people are still clueless about these principles.  So why not help out and take it a step further?

Negative Trace is about actually removing trash or undoing damage that others have caused. It can be as easy as bending over and picking up a stray trail bar wrapper. Some people also refer to this ethic as "Erase The Trace".  Those of us that get so much enjoyment from spending time in nature should take time to give back. Land managers are often short on trail maintainers and wilderness rangers, so why not help maintain your favorite areas? A little preventative maintenance can make a big difference.

Lessons from the Wild #4

Even when we can't get "away" to the wilderness, it's still important to spend time in nature.

Particularly for urbanite's, we need open green spaces to improve our physical and psychological health, strengthen our communities, and make our cities and neighborhoods more attractive places to live and work. Unfortunately, too few Americans are able to enjoy these benefits. 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas, and many of these areas are severely lacking in park space. Only 30% of Los Angeles residents live within walking distance of a nearby park. Atlanta has no public green space larger than one-third of a square mile. And low-income neighborhoods populated by minorities and recent immigrants are especially short of park space.

Not only are green spaces are an essential component of a healthy community, but they're a great benefit for the whole environment.  They filter pollutants and dust from the air, they provide shade and lower temperatures in urban areas, and they even reduce erosion of soil into our waterways.

Green spaces can come in many forms, and can be started by YOU -

• Plant a tree - It's one of the most simple and effective things you can do to improve your green space.
• Create a Community Green - These are shared open green spaces on the inside of city blocks, created either when residents merge backyard space or reclaim underutilized urban land such as vacant lots and alleyways.  Communities that create backyard commons have increased interaction with neighbors throughout the planning and implementation process, which results in a stronger overall sense of community. 
• Apply to Install a Parklet - These mini sidewalk parks are popping up in many cities.  Parklets are aesthetic enhancements to the streetscape, providing an economical solution to the need for increased public open space.
• Create a Park in Your City - This takes more work, but there are organizations like The Trust for Public Land that provides tools to help.
• Become an Urban Gardener - Besides making your food as "local" as possible, urban gardening provides all the other green space benefits. 

 

Lessons from the Wild #3

This perfectly sums up what I feel after just returning from a week hiking in Yosemite National Park on the John Muir Trail -

"You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here."  - Alan Watts

Only one week, and I feel reborn, refreshed.  And, I feel a deep gratitude for those that fought the good fight, and still are, to protect and preserve our wild spaces.  This last was hit home strongly by a German friend who joined me on this trip.  This is a guy I'd met trekking in Nepal 7 years prior.  He's fortunate to be a tour guide and has spent a lot of time in majestic mountain landscapes all around the world.  After a brief trip here in 2009, he was eager to come back for more, and set his sights on a 4-week hike of the legendary John Muir Trail.  I joined him for the first few days and was inspired at seeing the California Sierras through his eyes.  One observation he made really struck me - that in the Alps, or Himalayas, or in most other mountain ranges, you generally begin in a town or village, hike up a mountain, then descend back to another town.  Not only that, but, particularly in the Alps, on many of the ridges you'll see gondolas, and lights, and roads snaking through all the valleys.  But here, in the California Sierras, you can look as far as the eye can see, and walk for a couple days (or more) in any direction, and still be in wilderness.  WOW!

And it's true.  As we sat in the evenings, watching the light fade from the sky and be replaced by countless stars, I realized that I couldn't even detect a dim glow of some distant town anywhere on the horizon.  Yes, this is rare I thought, and to the great credit of the founder's of our country's national park system.  And countless others who have fought for their continuing preservation, against great odds. David vs. Goliath type battles.

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.”   - Wallace Stegner, The Sound of Mountain Water

There are many organizations doing amazing work to protect and preserve these vitally important places for all to enjoy - wild animals included.  Start by checking these out and consider what you can do to help - sign a petition, donate, volunteer, spread the word.

National Parks Conservation Association
Friends of the Earth
The Wilderness Society
Save Our State Parks
The Sierra Club
The Nature Conservancy 
Campaign for America's Wilderness
California Wilderness Coalition
Earthjustice
Save the Redwoods League

I also highly recommend the Ken Burns documentary - The National Parks: America's Best Idea - that not only tells the amazing story of our parks foundings, but is beautiful nature porn too.  Most importantly, get out into the Wild!

“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”   - Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

It's a Right, Not a Privilege

Privilege (n): An immunity or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantaged of most.

Right (n): That which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, or moral principles.

Responsibility (n): Being answerable or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.

At first glance, it's easy to view these terms as mutually exclusive. From their definitions, we can see that what is a "privilege" cannot be a right since rights are enjoyed by everyone, while a privilege is reserved for a select group. Likewise, it's impossible for an individual to take on the burden of responsibility if they lack to the right to vote in the first place.

Despite this initial judgment, many people view the ability to vote as all three simultaneously and weigh "right" after "privilege" or "responsibility." For example, many believe the ability to vote is a privilege granted to today's eligible voters by those who fought for it in the past either through war, grassroots movements, or legislative battles. These struggles have kept the United States as an independent nation and granted us the right to vote with the passage of the 15^th, 19^th, 24^th, and 26^th amendment, in addition to the legislative victory of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. From this perspective, it is a privilege to live in the United States, standing on the shoulders of these past giants, and we have a responsibility to vote because it honors those who have put their lives on the line to protect it. Excerpted from www.fairvote.org

Respect for every vote and every voice means that while we honor voting and our nation's heroes, we oppose the government having the power to infringe upon our fundamental right to elect our representatives and exercise our voice through our vote. 

There are so many important issues at stake in this election.  Exercise your right to make a difference.  Get out and VOTE TODAY! 

And then check to see whether the candidates and media are upholding our civil liberties in this election at ACLU Liberty Watch.

 

Special Delivery

I recently went to an art showing that blew my mind.  

Expansive.  With more than 80 local artists contributing in a space measuring 36,000 square feet.

Thought-provoking.  Social commentary ranging from religion, to politics, to the environment, to what we eat, to who we are.

And about to be destroyed.  September 30th was the last, and one of the very few days when this collection was viewable to the public.  The entire space has since been sandblasted.

The Story of Change

As a follow-up to my posts about simplicity and social responsibility, this new video by the maker's of "The Story of Stuff" is an interesting and compelling story about how to take the next step.

I'm an optimist by nature, but change for the better won't just happen.  I, and you, need to take an active role in directing the course for the future.  Whether it be through our vote, voice or dollar.

Poverty, money -- and love

After writing my last post, I just happened to watch a very moving TED talk from one of the Kiva co-founders, Jessica Jackley.  Excellent description of how we can share, in small $25 increments, to empower the poor, and allow them to change their own lives, in the ways that are really effective.  Not us in the developed world telling them what they need, or merely appeasing our guilt.

Her ending notes: We don't need anyone to tell us to care, we already do care.  We just need to be brave enough, and take the initiative to try.  Stop, and listen to someone else's story.   Everyone has the potential to do amazing things in the world.  We're all here for each other.  Believe in each other.  We need to make our collective story into a love story to change the world. 

To be a part of the amazing work that Kiva does around the world, start here.  Or find a cause that you care about.  Be a part of the love story.

My Story

So, you've been reading some of my posts about simplicity, social responsibility and change.  And, you're wondering...  why am I doing this?

Over the past 10 years, I've made major improvements in my own happiness and have grown enormously.  I'm not an expert, or a life coach, but I do feel it's important, and valuable, to share my own findings through personal experience and research on my path to growth.  My hope is that anyone reading this can know that they're not alone, and learn from my mistakes.  This helps me to continually clarify my path, but is also in answer to friends, acquaintances, and perhaps now strangers too that ask why I'm so happy, or how I can enjoy living so simply, or afford to travel for almost 3 years. 

Though not the first step on my path, one of the most profound was my decision in 2005 to leave the field of architecture and travel with my partner in the developing world for an undetermined length of time.  We rented our home and bought a one-way ticket to India.  It was terrifying and exhilarating.  Our aim was to live simply, experience life at the local level, gain an understanding of other cultures, trek in the Himalayas, see the World!  We chose to travel slowly and almost exclusively overland.  Over this time I read profusely, journaled extensively, met scores of incredibly generous people, had hundreds of unforgettable experiences.

The time I spent in the developing world made a profound and lifelong impact on the way I think, feel and want to behave as a citizen of this planet.  During a period of this time we served as Fellows for Kiva.org in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  This volunteer work gave me intimate access into the humble homes of families borrowing money to sustain or grow their businesses.  With the help of the local microfinance officers, who acted as translators, I was able to ask any question I wanted and learn fascinating details of these people's lives.  I wrote about my experiences and discoveries on Kiva's website for lenders all over the globe who helped finance these small business expenses. 

Here is a sampling of some of their stories:

Channa Ven, mini-mart owner

Channa, 41, is a tiny woman. She seems very shy at having a barang (foreigner) visit her home. We sit on a woven mat on the front porch of her thatched home - also tiny at only 10'x12', and housing 8 people!. Channa has been running the little open-air grocery stand in front of her home for the past 7 years. She says she's happy with this work as it allows her to be home and take care of her 6 children. Her husband used to work in an office, but after he had an operation a few years ago he's been working at home with her. They also raise pigs and work for neighbors during the rice harvest.

Channa's loan of $400 has enabled her to purchase new items for her store, and a small freezer, to better compete with the other village stores that have recently opened. For several years, she was the only store in town, carrying a variety of items - bread, sugarcane, noodles, fesh produce, and rice wines mixed with different fruit juices. Now she tries to keep an edge over competition with her homemade butter, ice cream and sweets.

Channa talks a lot about her children and the difficulty of keeping them in school. Of the six, her oldest is 19 and will now be working with them as college is too expense and far away. Her youngest child, 4, was very ill with fever when she was young and suffered brain damage so that she now has to take care of her at home. More optimistically she speaks of one daughter who is learning English and is "very clever". Channa hopes that with increased income she'll be able to provide for her to attend secondary school.  An opportunity she never had.

Siem Morm, farmer

Siem, a widow at age 53, smiled broadly as she welcomed us into her home the other day. Her loan of $500  has enabled her to purchase fertilizers and pesticides for her farm.  Like her parents before her, and their parents, Siem is a farmer. She's been doing it for over 30 years and says the work comes easily for her as it's all she's ever known. It's very hard work though, and prices are constantly fluctuating, so that the income is often only enough to cover the family's basic living expenses.

Of her eight children, 2 daughters are married and live away from home. Another works in the local government-run garment factory. Her youngest daughter, 14, is still in school and helps her in the afternoons. All four sons are living at home and farm with her. Her main focus now is for improving the business and providing a better education for her youngest. She hopes that when this loan has been repaid she will take another to build a new outhouse and make other improvements to their home.


Saroeurn, 56, greeted us in front of her small mini-mart the other day. The "store" is simply a couple of tables with items displayed on them and others hanging from above. She cleared a spot for the loan officer and I to sit and motioned for her daughter to take over. As we asked her about her life, family and the effects of her loan, several other children and grandchildren who were sitting nearby gazed at us with open curiosity.

Sarourn, mini-mart owner

Saroeurn's loan of $1,000 has enabled her to purchase new items for her store to better compete with the other village stores nearby. The mini-mart is stocked with a variety of food and sundry items - fresh produce, sugar, seasonings, rice crackers, cigarettes, eggs and ice. She tries to keep an edge over competition with unique items like homemade wine and shrimp cakes. Saroeurn also used a portion of her loan to purchase jasmine flowers which her daughter, 24, resells in Phnom Penh. 

Saroeurn's husband is a construction worker. Of their nine children, ages 10 - 24, five have stopped school and work to help support the family. One son is still in school and studies English in Phnom Penh on the weekends. With their combined income, Saroeurn feels her family is doing well. She hopes that in the future, if business continues to improve, they won't have to borrow money again and may even save enough to buy a moto-scooter for the family.

Hong, woodcarver

The experiences I had among the disadvantaged taught me about traveling lightly through life.  It's an amazing sensation for one so used to structure and schedule to be mobile and flexible... and to lighten your load of "stuff"!  That was the beginning of my simplification at home.  It's strange, but excess possessions seem to weigh you down in the same way that excess baggage on the road does.  All those "things" have an attachment and begin to own "you".  So, it goes to reason that the less you have, the more free you feel.  

Liberate yourself!  

Nouern, weaver

Another important lesson that traveling taught me was to slow down, take your time, and take a deep breath.  You're not on this journey alone, so be polite to your fellow passengers - smile and assist when needed.

And finally, be flexible!  Things often don't go as planned, but anger doesn't help.  Again, breathe.  Sometimes, the unexpected can bring about the best in a situation, or in you.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."  - Lao Tzu

Are You Socially Responsible?

What does that even mean anyway?   

Individual or Personal Social Responsibility, often referred to as ISR or PSR is a concept  as old as The Golden Rule - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's about recognizing how your behavior affects others, and holding yourself accountable for your actions. ISR expands on this by promoting a proactive stance towards positively influencing and affecting the people and environments outside your immediate circle. ISR is also at the root of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, because a corporation is comprised of individuals and hence determines the social responsibility culture it creates. Individuals are becoming more socially responsible and, in response to this Corporations and Companies need to become more socially responsible to meet consumer demand.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states that “In the wake of increasing globalization, we have become increasingly conscious not only of what we buy, but also how the goods and services we buy have been produced. Environmentally harmful production, child labor, dangerous working environments and other inhumane conditions are examples of issues being brought into the open. All companies and organizations aiming at long-term profitability and credibility are starting to realize that they must act in accordance with norms of right and wrong.”

According to a 2007 poll, when it comes to individual social responsibility, there are three types of people:

1. Two-thirds of U.S. adults have “Good Intentions” – they believe that social responsibility is a good idea, and they do what they can in terms of volunteering, but they do not sacrifice huge amounts of time or money.
2. At the top end of the spectrum, only 8 percent of U.S. adults “Practice What They Preach” and for this group, individual, as well as corporate, social responsibility is extremely important.
3. One-quarter of U.S. adults, however, follow a philosophy of “To Thine Own Self Be True” and, for this group, social responsibility has little consequence in their lives.

A socially responsible person will endeavor to have a positive effect on others and enrich their environment, as well as the larger community. They will strive to make a positive contribution, and will not pollute the atmosphere, both physically and metaphorically.

So, which type of person are you?  Be part of the 8% - help out or give to a cause you care about today.

“The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.”  - Hubert H. Humphrey