I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

Photo by Pexels generously shared on Pixabay.  Thank you! ♡

Oak Trees

This quote in today’s Gem is from Nipun’s interview in 2014 on Awakin.org.  If you listen to about one-fourth of the way into the call, Nipun tells a story as told to him about Hurricane Katrina and the oak trees that survived.  They were able to hold on, even the face of that massive storm, because they held onto each other by their roots.  Their roots went deep into the earth and connected there.  Because they held on tight to each other, they survived together.  I created this painting after hearing this story from Nipun personally during our group Laddership call. This is now our @under1000skies Twitter profile photo:

Co-Creators

I met Nipun Mehta about four years ago when I signed up to be a volunteer (or as Nipun says, a “co-creator”) on ServiceSpace.org.  I was terrified to be in a new group of people, even online.  Nipun is the same with me as he is with every person he encounters — compassionate, kind and a master listener.   For that first year, especially, Nipun mentored me through emails and answered the many questions I had about service and the gift economy.  Nipun believed in me and liked my writing.  He was patient and totally compassionate about my shyness and fears.  We met face-to-face, in a way, on a video conference call with others in our “Laddership Group.”  To have the high regard of this incredible human being, to get kind notes whenever he was able to write or in an area to respond awakened something in me.  Because it wasn’t just Nipun’s kindness that was changing me.  Everyone I encountered on ServiceSpace.org is exactly like this.  This is why I say on our Twitter page that my teachers and mentors are on ServiceSpace.  In the past ten years especially, I have met some amazing and beautiful people who are now my soulkin.  I’ve written about my fitness-team friends often, but they are among those I’m thinking about too and the beginning of my journey into the light I believe began there.  I learned so much, and when I began to see myself through the eyes of people I admired, I started taking steps away from this lifetime of self-loathing.  The more time I spent in the company of these noble friends, the more light I was able to see in myself and in the way ahead.  Nipun and many others have been the Colonel Pickerings in my life:

What Love Awakens

It is not unimaginable that revolutionary change makers such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and our modern heroes like Nipun Mehta, or any other whom has walked a path of love and devotion for mankind, could awaken something within us.  What awakens, is the call for us to recognize our own innate goodness. The inspiration we feel by these great ones, acts as an open invitation for us to move in a spirit of love, faith and compassion.

Where Do We Find Gandhi Today?

♡. under1000skies
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