Sangha of Auspicious Companions

August 18, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

What Makes Extreme Do-Gooders Tick?

“From protecting our natural environment to improving our children’s education to combating global poverty and disease, we’ve come to rely on extreme do-gooders to tackle the world’s toughest problems. Few of them will make as much as they could in the private sector. They may lose a relationship with a loved one to their work, or miss their kids’ big moments. All of which raises the obvious: Why? What makes these people tick, and how do they sustain a lifetime of commitment to a change that might take generations to see?” This Christian Science Monitor article delves deeper into these intriguing questions. { read more }

Be The Change

Stop for a moment to consider the question of what makes you “tick”.

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August 17, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Her Heart Was Bigger Than This Room

It is a tragic story, but one that touches and inspires. For her 9th birthday, instead of getting presents for her, Rachel Beckwith asked loved ones to donate to charity:water, a nonprofit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Her goal was $300, enough to give 15 children access to clean water, but she only got to $220. A month later, tragedy struck, when her family’s car was involved in her 13-car traffic accident. Rachel was critically injured. That’s when word spread, and contributions started pouring in. Most of them in $9 increments, the totals kept increasing, but unfortunately, Rachel passed on. The contributions kept flowing in, though, with over a million dollars donated. “Her heart was bigger than this room. She always gave whatever she had and would continue to give more,” her father said. { read more }

Be The Change

Support someone who is giving purely, regardless of the size of their gift.

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August 16, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Sacred Giving and Receiving

Giving has long been a central part of American Indian cultures. It may be a means of giving thanks, of bringing the people together, of gaining honor, of distributing material goods so that all may survive, or of teaching. Giving away things informally is also common in American Indian communities in times of good fortune. And yet, in much of the twentieth century, American Indian giveaway practices have often been viewed as a threat by government officials. In the last few decades, however, great strides have been made to return attention on the value of giving thanks. Many in this culture consider it a deep practice, where the giver is not calling attention to himself or herself, but to the spiritual power behind it all; thus both giving and receiving remain sacred. This Parabola Magazine article explores this powerful tradition. { read more }

Be The Change

Tune in to your gifts today. Look for something it might bring you joy to give away.

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August 15, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

The Horse Whisperer

“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see,” says Buck Brannaman, a cowboy who travels around the U.S. helping horses with “people problems.” The documentary film, Buck, follows Brannaman from an abused childhood to an incredibly successful relationship with horses. In the film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on the animals you’ve known in your life, and what they’ve taught you.

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August 14, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Raising Kids to be Less Stuff-Centered

“Too often, we turn to acquiring stuff to meet our emotional, social, recreational and other needs. This consumer-mania isn’t good for our resource-stressed planet, isn’t good for our family budgets and ultimately doesn’t work. We have more stuff than previous generations could have dreamed of, but we also have less leisure time, fewer friends and spend less time with our kids.” Annie Leonard, author of the book, “The Story of Stuff,” offers tips from her own experience in parenting, as well as from thousands of other parents. She offers suggestions on developing family traditions around creative time together; creating communities with similar, character-based values; nurturing kids’ non-product-based identities; sharing stuff with local communities; and helping kids cultivate a resistance to the constant barrage of commercial messages. { read more }

Be The Change

Donate or share stuff that you don’t really need.

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August 13, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Seeds for Self-Reliance

The practice of saving seeds has been a cornerstone of farming traditions and has allowed agriculture to become a way of life. But the introduction of high yielding seed varieties and pervasive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has eroded the diversity of indigenous seeds. The GREEN foundation in India recognized that women are crucial to seed conservation efforts there. By setting up community-managed seed banks, they have been working with small and marginalized women farmers to promote conservation of indigenous seeds, agro-biodiversity and ecological farming practices. And the seed, a symbol of fertility, perpetuity, and sustenance in India, is now also becoming a symbol of self reliance. { read more }

Be The Change

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to nearly half a million specimens from around the world and the most well-known example of a practice called “seed banking.” { more }

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Sister Cyril of Calcutta

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August 12, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

The Pay-It-Forward Little Libraries

Bigger than a breadbox, homier than a newspaper box and more surprising than a bookmobile, the Little Library is popping up all over town. On bike paths. Outside coffee shops. In the front yards of private homes. Stocked with books ranging from academic texts to children’s classics, music instruction and gardening magazines, each two-by-two-foot Little Library bears the same simple message: “Take a book. Leave a book.” The brainchild of Rick Brooks of Madison and Todd Bol of Hudson, the Little Library has found a home in more than 20 spots in Wisconsin since last summer and is spreading to communities in states from Minnesota to New York. In an era of laptop screens and eBooks, happening upon a Little Library can have its own special magic. { read more }

Be The Change

Check out the “Build a Library” section of the Little Libraries website. { more }

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August 11, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less

Stuff. We invariably accumulate it and often times develop a certain emotional attachment to it. To some extent, it’s the effect of increased marketing, but it is also our own conditioning. Fortunately, new digital platforms and cloud-based tools are making it increasingly easy to have many of the things we want without actually owning them. Because, as Wired founder and notable futurist Kevin Kelly once put it, “access is better than ownership.” Here are seven services that help shrink our carbon footprint, lighten our economic load and generally free us from the shackles of stuff — all through the power of sharing. { read more }

Be The Change

Start a virtuous sharing cycle among friends, offering some things or services you have access to.

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August 10, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Secrets to Longevity

They say that the key to a long life is eating well, exercising regularly and reducing stress. Now an eight-decade study indicates that this is only part of the equation. The Longevity Project tracked the lives of 1,500 boys and girls to explain how factors such as social connections, personality and marriage affect long-term health. The results flipped traditional logic on it’s head. “Take disposition, for example. Cheerful and optimistic children are actually less likely to live long lives, they found.” According to this NPR article, the findings clearly revealed that the best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness. { read more }

Be The Change

Take the longevity self-assessment at the bottom of the article. { more }

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