Day 1: Will the Beautiful Women of the World Please Stand Up!

I believe that the things you need come to you when you need them the most, and Cami's "29-Day Giving Challenge" is no exception.

A year ago my family's life was turned upside down. Two days before Christmas my partner went into work and was told that his job was gone. A few weeks later I got the same news. Like so very many other families, we continue to face the challenges of an economy that collapsed and left many of us wondering how our lives could change so drastically -- and so unexpectedly -- overnight. A year of doing without and coming to the end of resources doesn't leave one in a very grateful frame of mind.

And yet I am -- grateful. There are astonishing gifts in having certain doors closed. You're forced to be resourceful, and somewhere along the way you find things that are incredibly important truths that you somehow abandoned when life was too busy to fit them in. Those things are the gifts of another post, but I needed to acknowledge them this morning as I got up and asked "what will I give?".

One of the things that makes the 29-Day Giving Challenge so "do-able" is that it acknowledges the intrinsic value of gifts that have nothing to do with your wallet. How many times have you received a really special gift that someone took the time to create, rather than purchase? If you're like me, the value of that is treasured deeply, because that person has invested something of themselves into honouring you. This is one of the things that I am looking forward to the most during the next month, and it's ironic that it's on my mind a lot the past two weeks as I have been thinking about this next Christmas of "doing without".

I got out of bed thinking about Cami's challenge. What would I give, and to whom? Like almost every morning I sat down at my desk and embraced a little ritual. Each day I take a very small scrap of paper and write down my "intentions". Being mindful and living intentionally have become the secret sauce in my quest to reinvent, and taking a moment to write down what I would like to invest into the day, and what I'd like to receive back from it, are empowering ways of setting the tone as I get ready to start. I fold this little scrap of wishfulness and tuck it beneath a tealight candle, shake a few drops of mint oil into the warmer above, and light the wick. It's a simple thing, and might not mean much to others, but for me simply going through the motions of being mindful and creating an environment that nurtures me throughout the day is empowering.

This morning on my scrap of wishcraft paper I wrote this:

I hope to receive guidance in choosing a person and a gift to start my challenge. I will be open to the influences of the day -- through the people I speak with and also the online places I connect with natural allies -- and to be mindful so that I might hear whatever wisdom is meant to guide me this way. I will use those influences to help me act from instinct and the heart.

It's kind of amazing just how fast Mama Gaia works when you ask her nicely ; ) In the shower my mind was on a project that I've been wanting to resurrect to help empower women in both countries of means, and in developing lands. I was mapping out in my head how I would invest my day committing to that again. I dressed and made myself a cup of tea, sat down and opened my browser. The first tab that opens is the one for HootSuite, which I use to track the wisdom and aha! moments of colleagues through Twitter. Here is the very first tweet that popped up:

@EstherHavens: You WANT to read this! "Will the Beautiful Women of the World, Please Stand Up!" http://bit.ly/ECAFP

It was an article written by Becky Straw, one of the women working with charity: water (@charitywater), a wonderful organization I've recently discovered that brings clean and safe water to people in developing nations. Becky talked about a pivotal moment for her when she met one of the women in Africa who her work was helping, and the incredible uplift created in not only health and community sustainability, but in women's dignity.

Not only did it make me practically stand up on my chair and cheer, it took my breath away at the serendipity of it's aim. So much of my work as a "better world scout" focuses on empowering women at risk in developing countries, especially Africa, with an attention to helping them help lift themselves out of poverty. Clean water and dignity have been such critical components of that, and it was astonishing to see the very things that call to me the most being crystallized in this single first posting of the day. At the top of this wonderful story was a button, inviting me to make a donation to help build a well. Every $20 given provides clean water for one person for 20 years, with every single cent of the donation going straight to funding freshwater wells and basic sanitation projects in Ethiopia, Malawi, India and Bangladesh. While $20 is used to illustrate the power of a small gift, you can give any amount you wish, and know that no amount is too small.

I knew that I had found my "Do Something".

Whether you call this the law of attraction, an answered prayer, or merely pure dumb luck, it was a really empowering way for me to do something very small that felt very big. In giving a gift, I received a much bigger one back.

While I don't particularly embrace the idea of "fate," I relish the gifts of "serendipity". The difference? Choice. Serendipity -- happy little accidents, or coincidence -- is about paying attention to clues. Being mindful is like shining a flashlight into the dark and being able to see the stepping stones in the grass, and recognizing the gift of being empowered to choose which of those paths feels most right.

While I came to my first day with the intent of acting in a way that didn't start with my wallet, wanting to give someone something very personal of myself, I was lucky enough to find a way that let me act through both.

Thank you, Ana Lewis (@CoOpweb) for helping me find this wonderful challenge, and thank you Esther Havens (@EstherHavens) and Becky Straw for being such a lovely part of that serendipity in helping me give my first gift!

Namaste,
Sue.