Micro-community Building

I just had an AHA moment…

It’s 12:30am, I had finished watching my recording of today’s Oprah Show, and I was discuss the future of women including myself, with my grown-up, very wise (takes after me!) daughter Ashleigh.

The topic on the show was how empowering women is at the heart of turning war-ravaged countries into peaceful havens, changing calamitous economies into prosperous ones, and convincing intolerant minds to blossom into forward thinking peace-keepers. When women are educated and given the opportunity to improve themselves, their natural instinct is to invest their good fortune in their families and communities.

Hilary Clinton was interviewed for the show on the topic of micro-financing—a movement that has received attention and support from all corners of the earth. In a nutshell, organizations offer small loans, sometimes as little as $50 or $100 to women who use the money to buy a goat or supplies for their beading business. These micro-investments are paid-in-full in very short order and the businesswomen who have received a leg up grow businesses that employ others (men and women) in the village, thus improving their villages as well.

Of course, this thinking—empowering women to see their role in the world peace process—sounded quite familiar to me. We have been preaching and teaching this for years in our event planning classes. If you can plan a birthday party, you can create world peace. Think about it, if you can keep the tolerance quotient up, have the kids get along, and send everyone home happy—then apply that same approach to every event—Brownie meetings, family gatherings, Thanksgiving dinner, a wedding—and if each event could build on the foundation of tolerance learned at the one before, you could teach harmonious relationships. You could create WORLD PEACE.

World Peace is a Cupcake Away

If you can plan a birthday party where kids bring a present and take home a new friendship, world peace is a cupcake away.

If you can plan a Thanksgiving Dinner where guests pass the gravy and leave the judgment, world peace is a drumstick away.

If you can plan a wedding where families are dressed in diplomacy and decorum, world peace is a bouquet-toss away.

If you can plan a business conference where companies boost the bottom line and build a stronger team, world peace is a briefcase away.

If you can plan a G8 Summit where nations connect and cultures are understood, world peace is a handshake away.

When you plan a great event; World Peace is a cupcake away.

Now, don’t panic. World peace is a lofty goal, perhaps even overwhelming. So here’s my theory…we women, ALL OF US, need to be micro-community builders. That’s how we can make a difference. We need to make the effort to teach our children to gather their friends, treat them with compassion and respect, enjoy them without judgment, and pay that attitude forward.

Of course, you are welcomed to go bigger, but the point is, you can start small, at the kitchen table, in the classroom, at a birthday party. While you’re at it, consider becoming a donor and letter-writer to one woman in the Sudan or Afghanistan through www.womenforwomen.org. For $27 a month you can sponsor a woman who you also write the occasional letter. Share your thoughts, learn what motivates her…you won’t be disappointed at the outcome.

Enough for now…I’m going to share a cupcake with my daughter…(and maybe a teeny little lesson).

How Do They Do It?

We have been enjoying the company of a school friend of my eldest daughter, Ashleigh. Rachel is spending some time with each of her college friends while she waits for her very new husband to finish Officers' Training. While they have been separated, she came up with an interesting concept for a workshop to discover the origins of inspiration and motivation.

Here's the question Rachel poses to her workshop participants, "How do you do it? How do you get out of bed every day? What motivates you to open sleep-filled eyes, pull back the warm covers, and face the day?" Hmmmmmm......can I think about that when I'm awake?

Actually, it has gotten me to thinking. What motivates me to get up? What do I look forward to each morning? Some mornings it is the anticipation of a simple cup of coffee and a chocolate muffin heated up for me at my favorite coffee shop The Purple Onion in Los Gatos. Lately, I have been motivated by a new project I have been workingon with Joni--the Leader2Leader Pilot Program which we are working on for our local high school.

But Rachel's question also begs reflection on how we are inspired by others. Who do you look at and ask yourself, "How does she do it?"

• How does a new bride find the courage to get married right out of college, move to a new state, wave her husband good-bye for 2+ months, and still managecreate a workshop out of thin-air and then launch herself on a national tour to try it out?


• How does a college freshman filled with self-doubt challenge herself to take on a new environment, new roommates, and new systems with such determination and honesty?


• How does an only child sandwiched between generations manage an elderly dad and new grandbabies and stay reasonably sane?


• How does a college graduate turn herself into a juggler, performer, and perhaps even a rock star while entertaining us with mimicry and British accents?
  

I am inspired by some pretty amazing women who do their inspiring acts in quiet, unassuming ways. So, since this all too infrequently blogged blogspot is about life's celebrations, I raise a glass to celebrate these lovely ladies--my inspirations..

...and I continue to get up every morning, anticipating the day...