Woke up feeling SO inspired and humbled by the company I carry ~ if I do say so myself. I have amazing friends who are doing truly amazing things for the world. We don’t see one another nearly enough anymore.
Last night, I threw a completely last minute, impromptu birthday movie party for Julie Pierce ~ world traveler extraordinaire ~ because it was unbelievable that she and other chronic-world-traveler-mutual-friends and I could all actually be in the same room at the same time. The bonus was that her daughter, Ariel Skelton, would also be in town. The planets aligned.
I wanted them to see the movie, “Ethel“, the story of the extraordinary Ethyl Kennedy documented by youngest daughter, Rory. The moral of the film drives home the message to never stop seeing where the suffering is – to see the wrong and “right it”. This is the legacy of Bobby Kennedy and what Ethyl whole-heartedly supported and taught her children to embody during, but especially after his death.
We laughed and cried. We all remember 1968.
A whole lot. I looked around the room and marveled at who sat there. So special because they are everyday people with brilliant minds and unending open hearts. Most people I know are this way but don’t know how to tap into it all in order to take the action they’d like to. I stay pretty tapped in, but it seems to take me longer to accomplish anything. While I hang out in the vision phase for way too long, these friends just get busy and “do”. They take action and make things happen right here, right now.
Georgene Crowe and Gretchen Lee, with their project, Great Shape! Inc. have been delivering dental, eye, and literacy programs now for 20+ years to Jamaicans, a country that has 1 dentist per 100,000 people and literacy in the schools they work at is 30-40%; For over 16 years, new friends, Joyce and Richard Stanley have been teaching people in Africa, Haiti, Cambodia, and Central America on how to make biomass briquettes for fuel and then selling them to create both an energy supply and a living; And then there is birthday girl, Julie, who is involved in one humanitarian service after another. When she first came to Ashland (when I first met her), she immediately saw a need and created a “bread project”, which took at-risk teens and taught them how to bake bread and deliver it to those in need.
These friends aren’t world famous for doing any of it, except by the communities they help and the government agencies who recognize them for their contributions to the local human spirit, providing hope for better economies and living conditions. They don’t have an ulterior motive to convert or change anyone’s beliefs or culture, but rather to support that culture’s ability to thrive. They just want to help other humans have their basic needs met.
These friends do so much because they care so deeply that people not suffer. They are all worthy of peace prizes in my opinion.
As an author and by virtue of my own choices, it’s too easy to get caught up in the marketing world of building one’s list and fast-paced technological marketing because that is what we’re told has to happen to make anything happen. The problem is that author after author, including me, spends more time on that aspect than the message itself. It drains me but I do my best to navigate it all and stay enlivened. Last night, by hanging out in my small living room with this remarkable pool of examples, I was reminded to just “do” ~ to see the suffering and contribute my piece to righting the wrong. The rest will fall into place.
The wrongs in the world that I see and attempt to right ~ the global purpose of 4 Seasons in 4 Weeks (#4s4w) ~ are the frightening circumstances that women, globally, live with and the very real threats to their survival and happiness: poverty, domestic violence, sex trafficking, rape, and having to ask permission, to name a few, with the biggest wrong being the legal system that does not protect them and the societal acceptance of these wrongs. I feel clear that I hold a major missing piece to women’s empowerment and am working to help them remember and re-embody this rhythmic feminine power knowledge that is within them. Although marketing is a crucial piece to getting any message out, last night I was re-reminded by my friends and muses that the only way to make things happen is to, well, make them happen! The marketing will flow ~ not without effort, but without distraction and in the right direction. Feeling happy about this.
What is your piece to the peace puzzle? What wrongs do you see in the world that you could take action on?
In good nature and spirit,
Suzanne
