The only true gift is a portion of thyself. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are delighted to announce the full launch of Wishadoo! -- a place where people can connect in a New Way, a way based in integrity, responsibility and compassion; a place created to fill a void, to show that we're not alone and to encourage direct interaction; a place that creates a full circle of giving, receiving, and paying it forward.
In a nutshell, Wishadoo has been described as the "Craigslist of Compassion." It's where you can share your heartfelt, lifelong wishes that seem out of reach, as well as urgent daily needs of survival. Many of us have been conditioned to not ask for anything and to be embarrassed that we are in need, let alone have the audacity to ask for help making a dream come true. Our hope is that Wishadoo will change that.
We're asking you -- we're challenging you -- to start somewhere. Post your needs, wishes and offerings. Put it out there. Enable others to act as human angels, and empower yourself to do the same for others in ways you never could have imagined. (no personal ads, please. ;) )
A kind word, hug, $5, or 30 minutes of your time can be a grand gesture which can change the course of someone's life. And yours. We believe you'll find the simple act of sharing, even anonymously, can be profoundly liberating.
There is no judgment, no expectation, no requirements to 'qualify.' We simply ask for respect, for oneself and others. If you enter with an open heart, with positive intention and no expectation, you have nothing to lose.
When we learn to ask for help – and then graciously receive it, and if possible pay it forward – so much can change. It could create this New Way. Wishadoo is part of this New Way, which is about taking responsibility for ourselves and others; forming real communities again; learning that it's okay to ask for help; learning that it's okay to give.
We offer this well-meaning challenge to step outside of your comfort zone and post your dreams and needs. We're inviting as many people as possible who resonate with Wishadoo!, asking you to help us by doing the following:
· Register at Wishadoo! (it's free, no requirement or commitment), which provides more opportunities for wishes and needs to be fulfilled and helps the Wishadoo! Community grow, online and in the real world. We have big dreams but will take it one step at a time.
· Forward this message to your contacts; insert a link to the site in your blog or website; put it on Facebook and other networks; share it with co-workers, church members, school contacts, organizations, and neighbors (how many even know our neighbors' names these days? Wishadoo can be your excuse to meet them).
· Once registered, check out the Wish List at the Main Site, and our Wishadoo! Community where you can join groups (feel free to suggestion new ones) and discussions, create a blog, and customize the "my page" area to promote your business, organizations, or simply share about yourself. We can create customized Wishadoo! Community groups for organizations, schools and workplaces, each being one piece of the Wishadoo puzzle.
· This is as grassroots as you can get; this is the creation stage, and we're simply there to provide the space and help it grow to be what can help as many people as possible
Again, we invite everyone to the Main Site, and to please join the Community Forum. As you'll see, we've entered into Google's Project 10 to the 100th, so the more members, the better chance we have of getting noticed! We're aiming for 144,000!
We're all creating it together now, and we'd be honored for you to join us!
Oh my, I just learned something about my birthplace and I think it's the cutest thing. I just had to share. ;)
I still have family in Enterprise, Alabama, and surrounding areas, but I grew up in Pittsburgh (GO STEELERS!). I learned today that Pittsburgh supposedly has the second largest (next to NYC, of course) St. Patty's Day Parade.
But when I heard about the following, I laughed out loud. I want to go down one year and do the honors. With a surname of Patrick, it's the right thing to do. :)
The "World's Smallest St. Patrick's Day Parade" will once again bring the Irish spirit to Enterprise Alabama on March 17, 2009 at high noon.
I defy anyone to NOT feel warm and fuzzy after watching this video. How beautiful! I want to be best friends with Tarra and Bella. :)
(CBS) When elephants retire, many head for the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. They arrive one by one, but they tend to live out their lives two-by-two.
"Every elephant that comes here searches out someone that she then spends most all of her time with," says sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley.
It's like having a best girlfriend, Buckley says - "Somebody they can relate to, they have something in common with."
Debbie has Ronnie. Misty can't live without Dulary.
Those are pachyderm-pachyderm pairs. But perhaps the closest friends of all are Tarra and Bella.
Quite a few of these stories are being posted at the Wishadoo blog, but I wanted to post this story here. I may post it as many places as I can, as it has such a great message and spirit to it.
Plus, I'm a big football fan, so this is a beautiful message conveyed through a simple high school football game.
Enjoy. Like the movie Rudy, I have no doubt I will will cry every time I read this.
If 2009 can be filled with more and more of these simple acts of kindness and empathy, it may not be nearly as dismal a year as many anticipate.
They are college graduates and high school dropouts.
They are disabled or sick without insurance and they are healthy.
They are jobless without benefits and they are working one or more low-wage jobs.
They are mothers and fathers and they are sons and daughters.
They are devout believers in God and they are atheists.
They are conservatives and they are liberals.
They are recent immigrants and they are descendants of Mayflower families.
They are strangers and they are friends, relatives, neighbors.
They are invisible, yet they are hidden in plain sight.
They are the poor. They are one in eight of us nationally, but in Milwaukee, Philadelphia or Newark, the number is around one in four. In Detroit or Buffalo, the number is closer to one in three.
For middle class Americans today, a rapidly worsening economy threatens foreclosure, unemployment, lost health insurance, ambitions deferred, dreams abandoned. For over 36 million Americans, however, the crisis is already here.
The media, mainstream and alternative alike, have paid shockingly little attention to poverty in America. The same can be said of all but a few of our politicians.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has declared January "Poverty in America Awareness Month" with these stated goals: · Releasing a powerful public service campaign to raise awareness of poverty in America. · Encouraging the editorial media to focus on poverty. · Educating the public to be sensitive to the needs of those in poverty and to treat poor people with respect. · Holding events in Catholic schools and public settings to make sure poverty is top-of-mind for all Americans.
Whatever one's religious beliefs, or even if one has no religion, it's difficult to imagine anyone committed to social justice being unsympathetic to these aims.
On behalf of a group of DU members (all of whom, I hope, will add their comments here), I'd like to urge everyone to follow the example of the CCHD and devote some time in January to help raise awareness about poverty.
What can be done in fifteen minutes a week for four weeks?
Write to your local newspaper, write or call your elected representatives and, perhaps most importantly, contact President Elect Obama to help ensure that his vision for change includes addressing poverty, hunger and affordable housing as the urgent issues they are.
Can fifteen minutes a week of our time really help? There's only one way to find out.
Please consider making this effort your resolution for a truly New Year. January marks a new beginning for the nation after eight long, terrible years. Let's do what we can to make it a new beginning for the poor as well.
Corporate responsibility. Community relations. Philanthropy. These terms are used across the business sector to describe partnerships between businesses and charities.
In 1983, American Express spearheaded a revolutionary marketing campaign in partnership with restoration efforts for the Statue of Liberty. For three months, American Express donated one cent from every cardholder transaction and one dollar for each new card member signed up to the effort.
The campaign resulted in $1.7 million dollars for the restoration, a 28 percent increase in card usage, and a 45 percent increase in new card applications. A new marketing tactic was born: cause-related marketing.
Cause-related marketing is touted as an effective, cost-efficient way to build customer loyalty, increase sales and visibility, enhance company image and gain positive media exposure, all proven and valid results. But the view on cause-related marketing can also be narrow, and may not include the full system within a company’s operations or overall corporate responsibility.
And let’s be honest here: Corporate responsibility should never distract from the fundamental economic role of businesses. A business’ role is to make useful, quality products or deliver services that fulfill a consumer need, and these goods and services should create added value from both a consumer and economic perspective for the company to be successful.
I first saw the term karma capitalism in a BusinessWeek article in 2006 that discussed Indian strategists using the "Bhagavad Gita" to educate and transform Western businesses. But karma is a simple enough principle that you don’t need to delve into ancient philosophical or religious texts to put it to work.
Capitalism is an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations.
Karma is an action in which all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it brings to oneself and others.
So karma capitalism would be an economic system in which the action of choosing to do good in both one’s individual position, the company and the world may result in the creation of wealth for oneself, the company and the world.
Case Study: HomeAid Colorado is a nonprofit organization that works with the homebuilding industry to build transitional housing for the temporarily homeless. Creative Touch Interiors is one of the nation’s largest premium interiors partners to the building industry with 80 design centers in 17 states.
In 2000, Creative Touch Interiors participated in its first HomeAid Colorado project, donating 100 percent of the materials and labor for the interior finish of a boys’ home. CTI has since participated in eight of 12 completed projects. In addition, CTI has sponsored the annual HomeAid fashion show fundraiser since 2005 and, in 2008, was presenting sponsor of the event for the first time.
In an economic downturn where others are shrinking from charitable giving as an integral part of business, Creative Touch Interiors strategically attached itself to a cause that matches its skills and passions, and in doing so, meaningfully placed itself in front of and even above the very companies who give CTI business. CTI increased its giving this year, and is strategically acquiring failing businesses, promoting employees and expanding services.
Creative Touch Interiors has not lost sight of its purpose as a business: offering turnkey supply and installation of multiple interior finish options for residential and commercial construction, along with comprehensive design center and interior care services.
What CTI has done is transform its Colorado office to a place where karma meets capitalism to produce economic value. Creative Touch Interiors is only one example of how a holistic approach that integrates doing good into the overall company system can result in increased exposure and revenue.
It’s more than just a marketing campaign. It’s a good way to do business.
Sarah Wolfgram is a development director for HomeAid Colorado, a statewide organization that builds housing for the homeless.
I still want to share my observations on one magnificent effect of Obama's win, but in the meantime I wanted to share something I found over the weekend.
I'm clearing out boxes and stumbled upon journals (I never succeeded in keeping one for more than two months, as evidenced by the lack of commitment to this blog...lol). I found a short story I had written about 14 years ago, to assure my then 2-year-old daughter that it was okay for adults to cry when they're sad. Her older brother, Joshua, was stillborn, so I was going through the intense grieving process while she was still a very small child. I didn't want to hide it, yet I didn't want it to frighten her, so I wrote Mommy, Why Are you Crying?.
I also found a poem I wrote at least 20 years ago; sadly, it still applies today, perhaps more so...and in the words of this poem lie the seeds of Wishadoo, the vision for which is to connect...person to person...and reawaken the best of humanity.
We're suspended in a culture of isolation, while drowning in a sea of souls; like millions of pieces of an unseen puzzle, seeking to become part of a whole.
Our hearts reach out in love and compassion when we learn of the suffering of others; yet somehow our actions and words are stifled, our feelings unknown to our sisters and brothers.
We are assaulted with a barrage of daily news, from local news to global weather; but how many of us can say we know the names of our own next-door neighbors?
It's easy to despair and feel overwhelmed in this time of such uncertainty and chaotic growth, but I believe we can find ourselves...by discovering others...always remembering the power of hope.
The Value of Challenges
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"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." ~
George Bernard Shaw When my kid went to bed, last night, I finally took a
few minut...
