Sangha of Auspicious Companions

September 6, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Gifting Art

A controversial statue led conversations.org founder Richard Whittaker to an unusual artist, Fredric Fierstein. The art piece itself was inspired from a place far off the beaten track. In Fredric’s words: “When I’ve gotten out of the cities I’ve met people of the earth, I call them. They’re not the kind of people you meet in the cities who are trying to hustle you. My guide, who spoke Thai and a few dialects, couldn’t speak with this guy. That’s how far out he was. I did find out from him, by sign language, that he was my age at that, which was so great! I had, I don’t know if you’d call it a revelation, I realized that guy could have been me and I could have been him. It’s so incredible.” A rich dialogue follows. { read more }

Be The Change

Reflect on a radically different and meaningful experience you’ve had — does it inspire your own creativity?

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September 5, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Mankind is No Island

“Mankind is No Island” is a cleverly crafted visual and musical narrative — with a production budget of a whopping $57. Jason van Genderen shot this entire movie on a cell phone using emotive images found on street signage in Sydney and New York. Winner of the TropFest NY 2008 award, the world’s largest short film festival, it is a three and half minute meditation on hope and hunger, on community and care, and on beauty and belonging. { read more }

Be The Change

Learn from a relationship, whether established or emerging, in a new way today.

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September 4, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Disrupt Yourself

When Whitney Johnson decided to walk away from a stellar career on Wall Street, even close friends thought she might be making a mistake. But in Johnson’s own words, “Notwithstanding the considerable career and financial risks involved, it was time to leave my comfortable perch and become an entrepreneur. Time to disrupt myself. We typically define disruption as a low-end product or service that eventually upends an industry. But I’ve found that the rules of disruption apply to the individual too.” Six years into her transition she shares lessons gleaned from her journey, in this insightful Harvard Business Review post. { read more }

Be The Change

Do something disruptive, something that feels right even though it might be unknown.

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September 3, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Time

“‘Time’ is the most used noun in the English language, yet it remains a mystery. We’ve just completed an amazingly intense and rewarding multidisciplinary conference on the nature of time, and my brain is swimming with ideas and new questions. Rather than trying a summary (the talks will be online soon), here’s my stab at a top ten list partly inspired by our discussions: the things everyone should know about time.” This intriguing Discover Magazine explores Time from the standpoint of science. { read more }

Be The Change

What does time mean to you. Reflect here with other readers. { more }

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Farmin’ in the Hood

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September 2, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

An Accidental Activist

“So many of us have good ideas for helping the world. But we tuck our ideas away. I did. I’d tell myself that if the idea were any good someone else would have already done it. That I’m not capable of making a difference. I’d sit on my ideas, get on with my ‘life,’ and then feel angry at the world because the problems I cared about didn’t get solved. I had that fear of going first. Then I took my first hapless step into what I call accidental activism. In 2006, I started a project where I lived as environmentally as possible for a year — with my little family, on the ninth floor of an apartment building in the middle of New York City — to attract attention to the world’s environmental, economic, and quality of life crises. I had no experience as an activist. Yet suddenly my project caught fire.” { read more }

Be The Change

Take one small step towards one of your ideas for serving the world.

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September 1, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

The Best Goal is No Goal

“These days, however, I live without goals, for the most part. It’s absolutely liberating, and contrary to what you might have been taught, it absolutely doesn’t mean you stop achieving things. It means you stop letting yourself be limited by goals. Consider this common belief: ‘You’ll never get anywhere unless you know where you’re going.’ This seems so common sensical, and yet it’s obviously not true if you stop to think about it. […] Goals as a system are set up for failure. Even when you do things exactly right, it’s not ideal. Here’s why: you are extremely limited in your actions. When you don’t feel like doing something, you have to force yourself to do it. Your path is chosen, so you don’t have room to explore new territory.” Leo Babauta shares his counter-intuitive perspective. { read more }

Be The Change

Try out not having goals in some domain of your life, and notice the effects.

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August 31, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

The Doctor Who Would Not Give Up

Dr. Richard Olney is racing to finish what is almost certain to be his last research paper. The 63-year-old neurologist is considered one of the country’s top clinical specialists for ALS, popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is also the reason Olney is in a hurry to finish his paper: He was diagnosed with it in 2004 and now has almost no muscle function left. But Olney’s most enduring contribution to the ALS field may have less to do with the details of his final study than the commitment he has shown, relentlessly attacking a disease that will soon kill him. It’s a lesson of persistence and personal bravery that clearly has impressed his own doctors. “I think about it every day,” Lomen-Hoerth said. “How he continues to work, his will to work.” This inspiring article shares more. { read more }

Be The Change

Is there something you’ve been meaning to give the final push to? Work on it today.

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August 30, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

School Superintendent Gives Up $800k

Some people give back to their community. Then there’s School Superintendent Larry Powell, who’s literally giving back. As in $800,000 — his expected compensation for the next three years. Until 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for $31,000/yr. “How much do we need to keep accumulating?” asks Powell, 63. “There’s no reason for me to keep stockpiling money.” The man who started his career as a high school civics teacher, who has made anti-bullying his mission, wants to ensure that his pet projects survive, and hopes his act of generosity will help restore faith in the government. There’s even more to Powell’s story: he contracted childhood polio, leaving him with lingering post-polio syndromes. But his view? “It’s the most spectacular thing that has happened to me in all my life,” Powell said. “People stepped up to help me be successful.” { read more }

Submitted by: Sharon Krause

Be The Change

Do you have something in excess? Share some of it today.

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August 29, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Money and Life: Ecologizing Growth

The words economy and ecology share the same root — the Greek word meaning household. Could a change in how we view economic systems create a change in how we view ourselves? Ecologize Growth is a five-minute video based on the documentary ‘Money and Life’, and seeks to answer that question. This micro-film is a challenge to the commonly accepted infinite growth paradigm of the modern economy. It brings in the voices of several luminaries — Jean Houston, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Lynne Twist — who explore old and new perspectives and belief systems about money and how all of these can affect society’s shared well-being, co-creative potential and evolving consciousness. { read more }

Be The Change

“Our common future depends on creating a democratically accountable money system that operates as our servant, not our master.” David Korten in this short reading called ‘The Flow of Money.’ { more }

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