Archive for the ‘Gratitude – Thankfulness’ Category

Why Kindness?

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Celebrate Kindness Hosts Jim and Lisa Papp with Emcee Deb Slater

There may be nothing on Earth each of us wants more from others than Kindness!

I was recently thinking about the Celebrate Kindness! free community event Lisa and I hosted in our town of Bellingham, Washington last July 23, 2011. We have discussed whether or not we would host another Kindness event in 2012. We planned the 2011 event to coincide with a talk I gave entitled “Why Kindness?” inside Village Books in Bellingham. We don’t necessarily think we’ll host regular Kindness events, but rather, we wanted to highlight the importance of being kind everyday…kind to yourself, kind to others, and kind to the earth.

Here’s a recap of that July 2011 event…

We rented the beautiful public outdoor park/community space called the Fairhaven Village Green right outside Village Books. I gave a short talk on Kindness. You can watch a video of my talk on the home page of this site.

We were happy to have a great group of people presenting at the event and helping behind the scenes:

  • Robert Bates, our fun and very talented teacher of  Qigong (“chee gung” – easy Tai Chi), led a Qigong demo showing how you can be kind to yourself by reducing stress and staying healthy with this simple, easy-to-learn and very beneficial practice. Qigong can boost your immune system, help reduce blood pressure, and may help prevent against everything from colds to cancer. Robert’s website includes many free videos and blog posts on Qigong practices and his class schedule:  www.funwithqigong.com .  He also has two Qigong DVDs for sale which are both available at Village Books or from him…Fun With Qigong – Five Flows Set and Fun With Qigong – Delightful Dozen.

Celebrate Kindness attendees doing Qigong with Robert Bates, Qigong teacher

  • KVOS’ Marla Bronstein shared “Gimme a Minute … on Gratitude”. www.gimmeaminute.com
  • Zoe Schackel, 2010 Bellingham Battle of the Bands winner, sang.
  • Deb Slater, host of “Community Extra” on KVOS TV, was our fabulous emcee: www.debslater.com
  • Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike helped us welcome people and spoke about how fortunate we are to live in an area with so many kind people, companies, non-profits, and government agencies.
  • Audience members shared the mic to tell stories of acts of kindness they performed or had observed. We heard great stories about kind neighbors, kind strangers, people giving up a seat on the bus, and other nice stories.
  • Participants helped make paper chains of kindness. Thanks to www.rachelschallenge.org for the inspiration.

 

 

Paper chain of kindness

 

  • Lisa had a lot of help creating and managing the event. Thank you to fabulous Bellingham/Whatcom County event planner Cantrice Hiler (contact: cantriceg@yahoo.com), John Palmer, Bob Ridgely for sound (www.binaryrecordingstudio.com), James Bauckman and Kyle of Revolutionary Productions filmed the event (www.revprovideo.com), and Copy Source helped with flyer and sign printing (www.copycource.com).

How can you be kind to someone today? Don’t forget to also be kind to yourself and to the Earth!

We would love to hear from you. Please share your stories of kindness. (Comment section at the bottom of this post.)

We also had fun giving away gifts from our generous and kind sponsors:

  • Delicious, healthy, and kind-to-your-body Goodies (Breakfast Cookies, Brownies, Granola) from Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods in a reusable Erin Baker’s shopping bag – www.erinbakers.com

  • Personal Training Session with Patti Guarino, ACSM Certified Health Fitness Specialist, at her private training studio in Fairhaven – www.apersonalview.com

  • Gift certificate for a hair cut and “kind to you and the Earth” Loma hair and body products from Hair With Julie. Julie Hiler is at Tropix Salon in Fairhaven – www.hairwithjulie.com

  • Buethorn Watercolor Studio – Bellingham artist Candance Buethorn’s beautiful watercolor prints on gift cards, a mug,  and a journal. www.cnbuethorn.com

  • KIND Healthy Snacks  provided us with boxes and boxes of yummy and healthy KIND Bars to give out. www.kindsnacks.com

 

 

 

 

  • Do-it-yourself Henna Art “Tattoo” Kit from Jamie Olson - www.riverhenna.com
  • Robert Bates – Fun with Qigong Five Flows Set DVDs and our Inquire Within books were given away.

How can you be kind to someone today? Don’t forget to also be kind to yourself and to the Earth.

We would love to hear from you. Please share your stories of kindness here…

Posted in Community, Gratitude - Thankfulness, Kindness, Washington | 3 Comments »

A Bit About Prayer

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

The only thing we really need to know about prayer is that it works. Everything in the Universe is made up of the same energy – the plants, the trees, the rocks, you and me, thoughts, diseases, moons, stars; everything you can think of is made up of the same universal energy.

When we send out coherent thoughts, wishes, or prayers, they emanate into the entire universe and that energy has an effect.  Prayer is extremely powerful.  It is unbounded by space and time and unaffected by distance.

Prayer is generally a worded address to Spirit – whether spoken aloud or voiced in thought only.  Prayer may be communicated through images and symbols as well.  It is an act of communion commonly including hopes or requests.  When prayer focuses on a single theme – like peace – it comes near to the act of meditation.

Prayer is made in so many forms.  For some, it is conversation with God.  For others, it is making requests.  For some, it is asking for integrity or strength.  And for others, it is a giving of thanks.  Many people never pray for anything specific in life; they are simply drawn to a regular, daily saying of thank you in their prayers.

Prayer, according to Michael Bernard Beckwith, Founder and Spiritual Director of Agape International Spiritual Center, is the most powerful technology we have today.

Whatever you pray for, leave the means to the desired end in Spirit’s hands.  Spirit works in mysterious ways and we do not want to limit how what we’re praying for may occur.  If we limit ourselves by being too specific, we cut ourselves off from the unlimited, infinite creativity of the Universe.

Prayer is often reserved only for emergencies when no other “normal” means of assistance seem to have worked.  This indicates how materialistic our culture is, since prayer is not commonly included in our society’s tool bag we carry with us to work on our everyday challenges in life.

Prayer as an ongoing practice of gratitude, of affirmatively yet humbly asking for that which we are entitled to – because we are one with Spirit – puts us  in a place where we are swimming in the natural abundance of the universe.  Communication with Spirit gently and lovingly works the garden of our soul so we may heal and grow.

Posted in Gratitude - Thankfulness, Prayer, Spirituality, Uncategorized | No Comments »