Sangha of Auspicious Companions

February 26, 2018

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Innovation Means Relying on Everyone’s Creativity

“You can’t hate someone whose story you know”. This motto highlights the work of Meg Wheatley, a well-respected writer, teacher, and speaker. In this informative piece, she reflects on the creative potential that emerges when we begin to treat organizations as living systems, rather than machines, and remain open to the possibility of adaptation and change. Drawing from 6 paradigms, Wheatley explores what happens when we dissolve our stereotypes and preconceived notions, and work together to welcome and support the ideas and experiences of those around us. No two of us see the world the same, Wheatley argues. Yet it’s our diversity that drives ingenuity, invention, and possibility. { read more }

Be The Change

Find a way to connect with someone who’s different from you this week. What was the experience like for you? Reflect on similarities that arose that might have surprised you.

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February 25, 2018

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7 Simple Ways to Cultivate Comfort

How can we find comfort for ourselves and bring it to others, amidst sadness, stress, or loss? We need not look beyond our capacity to lend an open ear, share a warm smile, offer a hug, or voice a simple thank you. In this insightful article, author Colette Lafia shares 7 ways we can be messengers of comfort, bringing peace and compassion to ourselves, families, friends, communities, and the world around us. âReal comfort can be found in the context of daily living. It is a grace. We just need to open our arms and receive it.â { read more }

Be The Change

Choose one of the 7 suggestions and practice it this week. What was it like for you and the receiver? Share about your experience in the comments section below.

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February 24, 2018

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Five Boys’ Response to Bullying

Every morning, the students at Franklin Elementary in Mankato, Minnesota, take the Pledge of Allegiance. But five fifth-grade boys embody “liberty and justice for all.” When the boys noticed their classmate with a learning disability getting teased, they banded together and made him a part of their gang. Watch this short film in which the boys themselves tell you why they did what they did. { read more }

Be The Change

When you meet someone different from what’s considered the norm, give them room to express themselves to you or the group. Find out more about who they are and where they are coming from.

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February 23, 2018

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Jean Vanier: The Wisdom of Tenderness

Jean Vanier’s life demonstrates tenderness. A philosopher, a Catholic social innovator, and the founder of The L’Arche movement, which is centered around people with mental disabilities, he has devoted his life to the practical application of Christianity’s most paradoxical teachings: that there’s power in humility, strength in weakness, and light in the darkness of human existence. The 147 L’Arche communities are in 35 countries and have become places of pilgrimage and transformation for those involved and the world around them. They create a culture of welcoming, where tenderness and touch are important, where the disabled teach what it means to be human. In this interview, Vanier describes his work with the disabled and predicts that the future of the world will be one in which the little lights of love will spread and be places where people love each other. { read more }

Be The Change

Vanier recalls that Mother Teresa fought feelings of anguish and advised us to stop thinking about the anguish and start loving people, “We will be healed by the poor so let’s get down to it.” Examine your feelings of anguish, then demonstrate your love – perhaps by volunteering with a local organization that works with the poor and/or disabled. { more }

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What If We Believed That No Lives Mattered Less Than Other Lives?

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February 22, 2018

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Living Needs Aging: A Conversation with Ashton Applewhite

In this interview ageism expert Ashton Applewhite discusses what she has learned over the course of her work. “People literally don’t realize that it is no more acceptable to criticize someone on the basis of age than on the basis of anything else about themselves, I think the most important thing to think about is language– because we live in a youth-oriented society, we tend to use young to equate with good things and old with bad things…I started interviewing people over eighty who worked. Everything I learned about these remarkable people I was meeting and from my own research completely contradicted all these notions I had about what it would like to be that old, about immobility, about the way you move through the world, the way you see yourself. I assumed that older people were depressed because they were really old and going to die soon. In fact, older people have better rates of mental health than young or middle aged people because of neurological changes that occur in the brain. It was hard for me to believe that people were less afraid of dying as they got older…. It is a function of the fact that the awareness that time is short doesn’t fill people with dread; it makes them spend their time more wisely.” { read more }

Be The Change

Ashton’s Applewhite’s Consciousness Raising Guide. { more }

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February 21, 2018

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The Secret to Happiness Around the World

Despite the many differences in what constitutes happiness in countries around the world, there are some common threads. The most notable has to do with material wealth: Few, if any, people around the globe find happiness through personal possessions and financial success. Rather, they tend to attain it by appreciating the little things in life and, more importantly, the people in their lives. Here are some of the secrets to happiness, from a variety of countries around the world, and the research behind why they work for the people who practice them. So read on, and find a multicultural approach to happiness! { read more }

Be The Change

Spend some of your time and energy this week exploring one of the practices or perspectives from the article. Reflect on how your feelings and emotions change.

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February 20, 2018

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Poet’s and Sages Behind Closed Doors

Not all of us will reach old age. The lucky among us who aren’t lost to disease, accident, or other unforeseen circumstances will have decades of adjustments to make as we age. We slow down, lines etch our faces, grey finds its way into our hair. At a certain point, it’s likely that some of us will end up in care facilities — whether due to the lack of surviving relatives to help, or simply because our care requires professional intervention. The aging process and all that it entails is often looked upon with fear or disdain. Lauren Grace Weldon takes a different perspective. In this piece she seeks out and finds, powerful stories, metaphors and messages in people who are approaching the sunset of their lives. { read more }

Be The Change

Make time to visit or chat with an older neighbor, relative, or friend. Get to know the essence of who they are and what matters to them in a way that goes beyond surface pleasantries.

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