inspiring non-profit blog Archives - Page 9 of 12

What Matters? July 27, 2015

A new beginning

The expression that life is a mystery is top of mind today. This past week I have had so many friends lose loved ones, grandfathers, friends, fathers and brothers. The pain of loss is unbearable and to watch others experience it just opens old wounds. It isn’t empathy that I feel, but foreboding. I have taken that road and know how hard the path ahead is. I want to warn them, shout and tell them the way but it is theirs to walk and my words will not be understood until the journey is completed.

And yet, each loss magnifies how precious our lives are. What we do with them, how we chose to use these lives and who we spend them with. Each minute is a choice and a precious gift. Do we want the “resume life” with list of accomplishments and boxes checked? Or do we want the “eulogy life”? One filled with stories of love, friendships, families, moments and joy? We get to choose, it is ours to decide.

So as I enter year 5 of Charity Matters, I choose a eulogy life. Every moment telling those around me that I love them, savoring every breath, flower, smile and moment and using whatever is left to give back to this beautiful world, the life it has given me.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes June 26, 2015

Summer is officially here!

“What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.”

Gertrude Jekyll

It is official, summer has arrived! What magical words. The longer days, no homework, the crazy schedule fades away and somehow life just slows down to a perfect pace.

It as if we all can take a deep breath and let the fun and joy of this perfect season take over. So wherever, you may be heading this first weekend of summer, remember to enjoy the beauty of the moments and the season.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes May 22, 2015

Charity Matters Quotes: Just thinking

“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

The simple gift of thinking.

Our lives are so frenetic and full that we barely have a moment to complete the most mundane tasks. However, when we stop. Just stop, take a breath, a moment and give ourselves the gift to sit and think it is amazing what can happen.

Somehow we have become afraid of silence and perhaps our own thoughts?

This weekend, give yourself a moment.

Just one.

Imagine the possibilities.

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? May 18, 2015

A funny thing

As I mentioned, we recently put our house on the market. We have no plan but just threw it out to the universe because it simply seems like the right time with our second son leaving for college. While keeping beds made (with boys), the house picked up and clearing out for showings at a moments notice is no picnic, there has been an amazing transformation in our family in the last two weeks…..gratitude.

Every time we look at a potential nest for our clan, we hear “this room isn’t as nice as the one I have” or “our kitchen is better” and on it goes. Even my husband and I find ourselves at night, saying how much we love the old beautiful wood floors in our house and how blessed we feel to live in this very special place. While we have always loved our home, it is the twisted human condition, that you don’t appreciate what you have until its gone which has hit our household.

Perhaps, at the end of the day if we don’t find the “right” next stop and stay in our home, then maybe that’s the lesson in this journey. Afterall, I now know for a fact that my boys know how to make a bed, keep their room clean at all times and that they truly realize the blessings of home. If that is the end result of this process, with or without a moving truck, then I would have to say its a move more than worth taking.

Charity Matters.

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Childrens' Causes May 6, 2015

Get on the Bus

This weekend we will all celebrate Mother’s Day in some way, either being celebrated or celebrating our mothers. However, the sad reality is that thousands of children will be separated from their mothers because they are in prison. It is estimated that 856,000 children in California have a parent in jail or 9% of the state’s children. These children are victims of their parent’s bad choices and yet still crave the connection with their mothers and fathers.

Fifteen years ago, Sr. Suzanne Stephan and Sr. Suzanne Jabro decided they could make a small step towards helping these children by coordinating a bus that would take 17 children to see their mothers in prison on Mother’s Day. The event was created to bring a much-needed connection for both mother and child and was named Get On The Bus.

Each child is given a travel bag, a photo with his or her parent, and meals for the day. For the emotional trip home, the children are given a teddy bear with a letter from their parent along with post-event counseling.

This weekend, Get on The Bus will serve over 1200 children, take 47 buses to reuniting mothers and children. It will be a Mother’s Day to remember for all.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration April 20, 2015

The Moral Bucket List

Yesterday, I was asked to speak to the high school volunteers and their parents at our annual Staff Recognition Day. I sadly had procrastinated on what to say and I found myself on Facebook…where I believe most of us procrastinators eventually end up. Before I knew it I found myself reading an article from the New York Times called The Moral Bucket List.

Upon reading it, I knew exactly what to share with our group of extraordinary volunteers and I thought it was worth sharing with you. The article talked about “resume virtues versus eulogy virtues.” It was written by David Brooks, who was more or less in search of enlightenment after finding career success, he began to ask what really mattered? He wondered why do some rare people emanate that light, joy, radiance and others do not.

Brooks goes onto say, “ Our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success rather than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character”.

The more I read the article, the clearer it became to me that everything he was searching for was in fact exactly the skills that our non-profit teaches to its 5th, 6th and 7th grade students. More than that it was what we ask our high school staff to pass onto their younger mentors.

The author posed three questions:

“What values bring happiness and character?”
“Have you developed deep connections that hold you up in times of challenge and push you toward the good?”
Lastly the author asks, “People on the road to inner light do not find their vocations by asking, what do I want from life? They ask, what is life asking of me? How can I match my intrinsic talent with one of the world’s deep needs?

I know these seem to be deep questions to ask to teenagers. Yet, as I spoke to them about finding their gifts and sharing them with the world, I looked at an audience of nodding heads. They already understood what “radiating light and joy” was that author was so desperately in search of ……because each of them was already aglow.

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? April 13, 2015

Alone

I am alone. I suppose we all are at sometimes in our life…the problem is that I cannot remember the last time, I was. Sure there have been moments in the car or shower but is that really being alone? For the next 24 hours my family is scattered for Spring break and I am holding down the fort solo.

A million thoughts run through my head…do I jump on the bed? Blast girlie music? After all, I do live in an all boy house….should I eat candy for dinner? Journal? Garden? Shop online? Read a book? Watch a sappy chick -flick? The options are endless….my mind is racing with possibilities….unsure of where to start with this magical gift of time.

Since my New Year’s resolution (remember those?) was to do things that bring me joy. I refer to my list (how pathetic is that?) and so I begin. Taking a yoga class, gardening, walking the dog in the park, reading and when the evening comes I realize I simply want to be. Quiet (shocker), alone with my thoughts and time to think about all the change happening around me as my nest continues to empty out.

I realize that this time is a gift, fleeting and to be savored because in hours, they will all barge in with tales of their journeys, dirty laundry, hunger and the noise will once again fill my home and alone I will no longer be.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Profile April 1, 2015

Spring Cleaning

We have begun our spring cleaning. No, not with mops and brooms but rather clearing out closets, drawers, garages of unwanted, unused and unnecessary possessions. Luckily for me, I was inspired by recent visit to the Los Angeles Chapter of The St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Time and again, I have cleared out my closets and driven to the Goodwill….and am embarrassed to say that I am not sure what it is exactly they do with my things? One of my earliest childhood memories was of the St. Vincent de Paul truck pulling up for our used donations. Over the holidays, I met the Executive Director of the LA Chapter, and he invited me down to see what exactly it is that they do and trust me, it is so much more than a truck!

On my visit I learned the history of this amazing organization, which was founded in Paris in 1833 by a compassionate college student named Frederic Ozanam. He was challenged by the poverty he saw on the streets and organized a “Conference of Charity” to help the poor of all religions. Frederic wanted to create an avenue that assisted people to express their faith and grow spiritually through acts of charity. My kind of guy.

For over 100 years, SVDP has been serving the needy throughout the United States. The Society, as its called, is able to help provide the needy to become self sufficient by providing emotional and financial support, food, clothing, furniture and housing because of donations both financial and household. Many of the household items are passed on directly to someone in need.

Today, the Society, is an international volunteer organization with over 1,000,000 members in 142 countries and continues its founder’s mission to “seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived.”

So, as you start your spring cleaning, remember how much good your unneeded items are for another.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration March 27, 2015

Do Something

I wondered why somebody didn’t do something. Then I realized, I am somebody.

Unknown

I love this quote and I think when I reflect on the incredible women that I profiled this week, it is the perfect fit. Two women, very different who simply wanted to make the world better in any tiny way they could. There is nothing tiny about one person simply helping another. It is the ripple effect of their kindness that makes them unknown heroes.

Each of us has the capacity to do a family service project, get a group of friends together for a dinner or simply to find a small way to lift another up.

You are somebody.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes March 13, 2015

What is here is right now

“Life is a great and wonderous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here and right now. Don’t miss it.”

Leo Buscaglia

Life has been full these past few months with no rest for the weary. So, I am taking some of my own advice and enjoying some much-needed time off. My oldest is home from college and we are months away from our second son leaving the nest, which seemed like the perfect excuse for a mini vacation.

What is here and now for me is my family and those precious moments of all of us together. What is right here and now for you? Whatever it is I’m sure you don’t want to miss it!

Happy Friday!

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? March 11, 2015

Broken record

Forgive me if I sound a little bit like a broken record these past few weeks but when signs continue to re-occur, I feel compelled to address them. Each week I write about giving…giving of time, talent or treasure, as they say….but over and over I keep hearing that many of us are empty….and like the giving tree there is simply nothing left to give.

You are not alone. This past fall I had some health issues….the final diagnosis was stress, overload, exhaustion. I had given beyond what I had to give…to my job, the many causes I support, board commitments, Charity Matters and of course our daily commitments to family, friends and the list goes on….mine, I’m sure, is no different from yours.

Did this trigger a radical shift? Sadly, no…radical isn’t in my DNA, but it did cause a slow transition. Have I slowed down? Not really, but what I am doing is recognizing the danger signs and giving myself permission to take a day off, permission to do things that make me happy, fill me with joy and fill my soul.

Of course I want to do it all, give to all , I have to give to myself, in order to give to all of those I so deeply want to help. Tomorrow, I will practice my husbands favorite slogan, “Charity starts at home.”

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration March 6, 2015

We can start now

” How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment. We can start now, start slowly, changing the world. How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make a contribution toward introducing justice straightaway. And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness.”

Anne Frank

As I wrapped up the week talking about amazing teenagers and young people, Anne Frank’s words from decades ago, are as relevant as ever. Teenagers, regardless of the century or decade they are from inspire hope.

As Anne Frank so wisely said, “You can always give something, even if its only kindness!”

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration March 4, 2015

VolunTEEN Nation

Teenagers get a bad wrap. I love working with teenagers. They are energetic, creative, passionate, full of life and eager to learn and give. The teenagers that I have the privilege of working with, are what I love most about my job. If they believe they can accomplish something, they can.

I recently came across an amazing story about a 12-year-old who wanted to work for a non-profit and was rejected multiple times. Her solution? To start her own non-profit organization and one that was powered by kids for kids. Her name is Simone Bernstein and in 2009 she did just that. She created a non-profit database where middle and high school students across the country can find volunteer opportunities in their neighborhoods, called VolunTEEN Nation.

Today, Simone is 22 and a Fulbright scholar at the University of Toronto. VolunTEEN Nation, which started in St. Louis is currently nationwide and has connected over 78,500 volunteers and funded more than 500 grants and service projects, since its inception. Simone and her brother Jake, plan to take VolunTEEN nation worldwide next year. As Simone said, “I realized that many people fail to understand that youth can make a difference.”

As someone who works with our youth, I couldn’t agree more.

Charity Matters.

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What Matters? February 25, 2015

Writing your way to happiness?

Last week I wrote about the “mid-life thing” and then days later a reader sent me a New York Times article entitled Writing Your Way to Happiness. The basic jest of it was that recent scientific studies say that writing can make you happier, lower your chance of sickness and have overall improvements on health and well-being.

We all “write” all day long, thousands of emails, texts, even Facebook posts but that type of writing is like showing people your living room. My mom used to say the living room is the room you want people to think you are, rather than your bathroom, which is who you really are. In other words, that kind of writing is for an outward perception, the writing the article is referring to is from an inward perspective.

What are you really thinking? Feeling? Doing? As someone who writes, alot…I think this falls in line with the mid-life posts, the last week. Writing is simply a gift you give to yourself, it is a time to fill yourself up, when you write from your heart and hear your own voice anything becomes possible.

While they say, don’t believe everything you read….this post is proof that once you begin to really listen to yourself through writing….. you can write your way to happiness.

Charity Matters.

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