Mother's Day - We are standing until everyone has a seat

Five years ago, I began standing with others on Mother’s Day.

The origin of Mother’s Day in the United States was not about brunch, cards, or flowers.  Those things are nice, but not what the day is really about. We have forgotten and need to reclaim that memory and intention.

In the 1800s, two women left their mark on the beginnings of Mother’s Day, Julia Ward Howe and Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. These women were interested in creating engaged citizens – activists. In their day, the issues were improved health, sanitation, working conditions, and ending violence.  I can only guess that they chose to use Mother’s Day because they were mothers and were dismayed to think of their children suffering in this world they brought them into or harming another woman’s child.  I think fathers feel the same way.

While health, sanitation, and working conditions have improved in much of the world; violence has not. AND there are still children without clean drinking water, adequate food, access to education, or safety from violence.

It grieves my heart to think of the children that are suffering when there is so much abundance in this world.

The world tells us there isn’t enough of everything to invite everyone to the table, things are scarce and we need to get ours, take care of our own.  The world has grown too small for us to continue to hold on to this way of thinking and feeling. Scarcity thinking creates fear.  When we make our decisions based on fear instead of love, it is likely we will harm others. There is plenty of evidence in the world to support this theory.

This Mother’s Day, we invite you and your loved ones to stand for Love - to take back this day and help move the world with your love for one another and this beautiful blue orb we live on - to make room at the table for everyone.

Please stop waiting for our governments to do what we as citizens of the world can do for ourselves. This is not a game of musical chairs where only one person is the winner and has a seat at the table.  [It would be very lonely to be the only person at the table.]  Everyone deserves to be at the table. Come stand with me to help bring more chairs to the table for everyone to have a seat.

I am standing on Mother’s Day, May 8 at 1pm at Hyde Park Square’s fountain and ringing my bell and holding the world in love. Come join me where ever you are and know we are standing together.

Building Community - One Act of Kindness

A few weeks ago, as I drove through an intersection (I was the 4th car back and had arrived just as the light turned green) - the cars in front of me were swerving to the left to go around a stack of lumber that was in the middle of the intersection.  As my brain slowly processed what I was watching, I saw a man get out of a pick-up truck and walk toward the lumber.  He started sliding the lumber out of the intersection and closer to his truck.

I continued through the intersection and pulled into the parking space in front of Panera's.  I was heading there for a quick breakfast.  My brain continued to process what I had just seen.  Oh, if we all stopped and helped the man, we could clear the intersection quickly and have him on his way in no time. The whole many hands make light work kind of thing.  BUT, my brain reminded me no one around the man's truck was helping him. Ugh!

Then, I locked up my purse in my trunk and walked the short distance of about half of a football length to the intersection.  As I was approaching his truck, to my left, I saw a man had parked his car in an empty lot next to the 6 lane road and was also headed to the man's truck.  We arrived at about the same time.  Together, he and I grabbed two long boards and carried it to the back of the truck to be loaded.

For a brief moment, I thought - oh yeah. Now others will get out of their cars and help too.  BUT no.  I was wrong.  In short order, the lumber was loaded.  With a thank you I appreciate your help, he was on his way.

Who have you driven/walked past that you could have paused and helped?  Really, it is okay to get our of your car, step across the street - to help each other.

Creating a New Way of Being in the World - one act at a time

A few weeks ago, as I drove through an intersection (I was the 4th car back and had arrived just as the light turned green) - the cars in front of me were swerving to the left to go around a stack of lumber that was in the middle of the intersection.  As my brain slowly processed what I was watching, I saw a man get out of a pick-up truck and walk toward the lumber.  He started sliding the lumber out of the intersection and closer to his truck.

I continued through the intersection and pulled into the parking space in front of Panera's.  I was heading there for a quick breakfast.  My brain continued to process what I had just seen.  Oh, if we all stopped and helped the man, we could clear the intersection quickly and have him on his way in no time. The whole many hands make light work kind of thing.  BUT, my brain reminded me no one around the man's truck was helping him. Ugh!

Then, I locked up my purse in my trunk and walked the short distance of about half of a football length to the intersection.  As I was approaching his truck, to my left, I saw a man had parked his car in an empty lot next to the 6 lane road and was also headed to the man's truck.  We arrived at about the same time.  Together, he and I grabbed two long boards and carried it to the back of the truck to be loaded.

For a brief moment, I thought - oh yeah. Now others will get out of their cars and help too.  BUT no.  I was wrong.  In short order, the lumber was loaded.  With a thank you I appreciate your help, he was on his way.

Who have you driven/walked past that you could have paused and helped?  Really, it is okay to get our of your car, step across the street - to help each other.