charitymatters, Author at Charity Matters

Charity Matters Quotes June 21, 2016

Ahhh…summer

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it”.

Russel Baker

Ahhhh…..summer! You are finally here! Yesterday was the longest and if you’re in LA, what I hope will have been, the hottest day of the year. The summer solstice has passed and now it is official, summer has arrived!

Summer is time to take pause, slow the pace and simply be and my favorite season of them all.

Running a non-profit summer camp doesn’t make it the slowest time of year, but it certainly makes it a magical time.

So here is to a great summer, full of fun, sun, joy and simply being….

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes June 15, 2016

Unity

“Where there is unity there is always victory.”

Publilius Syrus

While all of us are still trying to process what exactly happened to our world last Saturday night, in Orlando, moments of unity are occurring all over our globe. From the rally in London, with the release of 49 balloons to monuments lit up from the Sydney Harbor Bridge to the Eiffel Tower, and beyond.

The world is coming together in love and unity, almost like a page from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Love always wins and overcomes. The world is speaking from their hearts and they are filled with love.

Where there is unity there is always victory.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes June 13, 2016

Acceptance

“Our uniqueness, our individuality, and our life experience mold us into fascinating beings.

I hope we can embrace that.

I pray we may all challenge ourselves to delve into the deepest resources of our hearts to cultivate an atmosphere of understanding, acceptance, tolerance, and compassion.

We are all in this life together.”

Linda Thompson

After a weekend filled with love and celebration, to wake up the horrific news yesterday morning was devastating. Trying to find light in the wake of such a tragedy is never easy. While one man destroyed the lives of so many, it is our ability to hold one another up, continue to love and accept one another that extinguishes the darkness and brings in the light.

As the quote says, we are all in this life together.

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? June 10, 2016

How do you measure a year in the life?

Today, is the last day of my forties. Even seeing those words in type is surreal. While I have to admit that this year has been a doozy for a laundry list of things…I wouldn’t change one single moment. It has been a year of loss and extreme change. However, the gift is that with the loss comes growth, wisdom, and insight……and if I’m really lucky, then perhaps a re-birth.

Just as all things come to me in crazy ways, I heard the infamous song from Rent and thought this pretty much sums it all up…

How do you measure a year in the life?

Celebrate, remember, the year in the life of friends.

Measure your life in love.

So tomorrow, as I move towards the next decade, and second half of my life, I know I am ready. If life is measured in love and the second half is anything like the first…..well its going to be a fun and wild ride.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration June 8, 2016

Full circle, a life full of purpose

Have you ever had a surreal moment that you never in your wildest dreams thought would happen? Well, that is what happened to me this past weekend. I was the commencement speaker at my Alma Mater, a surreal experience for sure!

Confession: I was a bit naughty in high school and had at least annual trips to the headmaster’s office, so standing there on Sunday, imparting some of the lessons I have learned this far, was both a privilege and a full circle moment.

If you had to tell students what you have learned along the way, what would you say? I know! It is overwhelming to pick just one message. So to give you all the cliff notes version, here is what I came up with. I talked about living a life full of purpose. Pablo Picasso’s quote, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

A life full of purpose breaks down in to the following 6 categories:

Exercise- You have to take care of yourself first before you can care for others.
Make friends- What is life without them? There isn’t one!
Road bumps- Life is full of them, they are just road signs
Serve, serve and serve- Charity Matters…just sayin
One thing leads to the next-Regardless of your plan, purpose’s plan is bigger
Gratitude-The ultimate key to happiness.

At the end of the day, I think this is what we all aspire to, isn’t it? To find our purpose. It is after all that magical intersection of where your passion and purpose create this elusive thing we call happiness. Sunday, I felt it. Communicating and sharing, the message of service was my intersection, one I never thought I would find….but so worth the wait.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration June 6, 2016

The great one…

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

Muhammad Ali

This weekend we lost a great one. A man born into a family of pre-Civil War era American slaves, who experienced the segregated South first hand and was determined to use his life to help others, which is exactly what he did.

Muhammad Ali devoted his life to helping promote civil rights, cross-cultural understanding, interfaith relations, hunger relief, and world peace. He did this through a variety of actions and causes. According to the National Constitution Center, he has been responsible for providing over 232 million meals to serve the hungry in such countries as Indonesia, Mexico, Cuba, Morocco, and Cote d’Ivoire, to name a few.

In addition, to his work abroad as a Goodwill Ambassador, he also used his fame and success to bring attention to causes such as Make A Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center and the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

The Muhammad Ali Center’s mission sums up the legend’s life and legacy best, “To promote, respect, hope, and understanding and to inspire adults and children everywhere to be as great as they can be.”

He was great and continues to inspire us all, to do the same.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes June 1, 2016

Well hello June

“How did it get so late so soon?

Its night before its afternoon.

December is here before its June.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?”

Dr. Seuss

Well hello June!

I’m not sure how you arrived so early this year, but here you are.

June means school is almost out, graduation, Father’s Day and most importantly the beginning of summer.

So, today as we welcome this wonderful month, it is time to be happy and optimistic about the sunny days ahead.

Everyday, is a day full of gratitude, but especially June 1st.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 30, 2016

Memorial Day-Arlington

Each year this day comes and I wonder how can I convey and share my gratitude for those that have served our country. There is no real way to express how grateful I am for our freedoms. While searching for something, this video came to my attention.

While I am an occasional country music fan, I had never seen this song called Arlington. If you do one thing today, to stop and feel grateful, watch this.

As we light our barbecues and pack up from our long weekends. Let us be mindful of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us all and their families. God Bless America and Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? May 25, 2016

T & C Philanthropy

I must admit that I have a guilty obsession with magazines. Over the years my sons sold magazines to raise funds for their school, and I of course became their best customer. Today, it is a rare and decadent moment when I can sit down and indulge.

The other day when this months philanthropy issue of Town and Country arrived, I was giddy. Now to find a moment to see what all these amazing people are doing to make our world better.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 23, 2016

Charity Water

With 1.9 million non-profits and more stories to share than we possibly could right here, Charity Matters had to put some filters on who we covered. The core root is people helping people in the United States. As a result, we don’t always cover some amazing international causes because it is a little outside the scope.

Every once in a while, we come across someone, who just gets it and it really doesn’t matter where they live or who they serve, it is what they do for others that becomes the filter for goodness. Without trying to create water and filter jokes, Charity Water is one of those stories. More specifically, the story of Scott Harrison, the former nightclub promoter who turned his life and thousands of others he serves around by creating Charity Water.

Scott says in his bio, “For me, charity is practical. It’s sometimes easy and more often inconvenient, but always necessary. It is the ability to use one’s position of influence, relative wealth and power to affect lives for the better. Charity is singular and achievable.”

Since 2006, Scott and his team have provided over 6 million people with the gift of clean water. Now that is a true filter for goodness.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes May 18, 2016

Charity Matters Quotes: Dreams

“So many of our dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve

This week as I continue to search for inspiration and vision, I am looking to the place where I usually find the most…within.

My dreams, thoughts and inner voice guide me forward.

It is in listening to oneself that we truly find where we belong and where we must go.

That is where I am.

Here, now, in this moment, simply listening..

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 16, 2016

Purpose

I have been searching for inspiration everywhere as I sat down this weekend to work on a commencement speech I am giving in June. Truly a terrifying prospect. If you were to impart wisdom, which by the way I am not sure I have to impart….to a group of young high school graduates, what would you want them to know?

There is so much to I want to say but I need them to leave with one nugget, one seed, one thought that they might possibly remember….although to be honest, the only thing that comforts me is that most of us do not remember our commencement speaker…..just sayin.

I digress, so I came across this, and thought I would share it with you. I honestly wish this guy would write my speech because this is good stuff. Enjoy!

If this doesn’t get your week off to a great start, then I am not what will. Happy Monday everyone!

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 9, 2016

The Year of Magical Thinking

One of my favorite books is Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. It is the real life story of loss and grief. A book I have given to many a friend who has lost a loved one.

What makes this book magical is that it talks about what triggers these emotions, in such a beautiful way. This year, has been a year of magical thinking. No, I have not lost a loved one but there has been much loss. We moved from the home where we raised our sons, we didn’t just get rid of the house, but most of everything inside…who knew that purging is loss? Our second son went off to college, our new house was truly empty, the dog died and I realized that perhaps my youth was on its way out too.

All loss but in a different way. It just chips away at you little by little, rather than in that large earthquake of loss that we experience with death. But the sadness, the feeling of loss is still there. Joan Didion writes, “we are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one day not be at all.”

Loss is life, it is change, it is growth and renewal and it is hard. Whether it comes to you in an earthquake or is chipped away piece by piece it is a process that each of us must endure in our own way. This past year of loss, has once again, been a year of magical thinking.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 4, 2016

What is old?

Aging is something that happens to all of us. This year with a “big” birthday ahead, I have been thinking about it, a bit more than usual. I have heard I should start looking in the mail for the AARP card, really? Let me be clear here, I am getting older (of course) but am not old, do not feel old and hope to be someone who never acts old, regardless of my age. One can hope.

I am also blessed with great role models, my grandmother in her nineties would take care of “the elderly,” people in their seventies. My Dad at 76, spins with me at the gym everyday, and as far as I can tell, everyone in my family who ever “retired” seems to just get busier.

So when I saw this recent video, I thought it was worth a share.

Age is a number, an attitude and a lifestyle. The number doesn’t matter but rather, what you do with your time….even if you have a little less.

Charity Matters.

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