Thursday, August 30, 2007

Secrets to Dream Life (2)

Again from Dumb Little Men "What are your talents? It's been said that we each have at least one gift we've been given, and that the true purpose of our lives is discovering that gift, and sharing it with the world. There is much truth in that statement, and an important part of this process is discovering your gift. What are you good at? What talents do you have? What have you shown an aptitude for in your current and previous jobs, in school, in your personal life? Anything goes here."

I am not sure if it is all that simple to discover your one goft but I am sure that you all have talents that can be used to improve your life and the lives of others.
Are you a planner - help a nonprofit develop a strategic plan. Are you good with numbers - assist with financial planning. Do you have the gift of the gab or writing skills - jump into a communications role. Do you listen well- offer to mentor. Look at your tallents, skills and gifts today and find a way to use them to assist someone else.

Survey

Disturbing Trend

Levi at LJ Urban reports this morning "In 1975 the average home was 1,645 square feet today that number has risen to 2,434, what makes the trend even more unbelievable is that during that same time period the average number of people per household decreased from 3.14 to 2.57.

Truly a trend worth reversing..."

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

22 Secrets to Discovering Your Dream and Living It (1)

Last week Jay White at DLM posted this on their blog

I am going to attempt to write 22 posts that show how these secrets can also improve the lives of others.

1. What are your hobbies? This doesn't just mean stamp collecting -- it means anything you do with your spare time. That could be collecting comic books, reading about history, programming Linux utilities, writing on your blog, writing poetry, cooking, whatever. As it's clear that this is how you like to spend your time, and that you're willing to do these things without pay, it's very possible that these are your passions. Give each of your hobbies some thought, and think about whether they're things you love to do, and that you'd love to do for a living.

Longtime readers will remember that we encourage you to follow your passions. Give those areas of your life deep consideration. What makes you passionate? Are there others who have the same passion? Can you take these interests and form a community? Since you are 'volunteering' do do these things - can you translated the actions into assistance?

The reading, writing or creative passions are always needed by local groups and individuals. If you are passionate about cycling, running or other physical activity can you join a fundraising event or offer to share your passion with a group of people?

If you follow your passions, your life will be improved in ways that you didn't imagine.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Tuesday Thoughts

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. ~James Michener

Monday, August 27, 2007

When is Enough - Enough?

How much stuff do we need to fill our lives? How much stuff do we need to maintain our homes, yards, or toys?
Does everyone need a lawnmower or can two/three neighbours share? You would save money, save the environment (face it all the crap we accumulate eventually gets thrown away) and likely build community with those around you. Make sure to set up some guidelines like who will do maintenance, storage, return in good/clean condition.

Start with something small like yard tools and maybe you can save ton's o'cash by sharing other stuff with family, friends, and neighbours.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Fear Clouds our Vision


At the community consultation on affordable housing that we attended this week, I heard a couple people talking about their fear of homeless people. I got to thinking about what the fear of homeless people might be and found that I was ref electing on two different meanings.
For the forum participants (and others) it might be fear of being accosted for money, fear of being intimidated by aggressive panhandling, fear of being attacked, or fear of the unknown. As irrational as fear can be sometimes, these fears have some basis in truth. There have been incidents (well documented by media) of attacks and aggression but the inductive reasoning that someone was attacked so therefore I was attacked is invalid because the opposite is true in more instances. However, I don't want to downplay the fear because it impacts how we see homeless people.

The second meaning that arose was the fear of homeless people. What do they fear? I am not homeless, I have never been homeless, and I can't imagine being homeless so my perspective is very limited. I imagine they have a fear having their possessions stolen, a fear of not having a place to sleep tonight, a fear of not having the next meal, a fear of never getting a home, a fear of being discriminated against, a fear of being arrested or hassled, a fear of being ignored and a fear of being unloved. I don't know if any of those are true but when I think that the person I am seeing might have some of those fears, it changes how I see them.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Follow-up Homelessness Consult

About 60 people struggled through a traffic nightmare to arrive at the Chamber of Commerce ballroom for an 8AM start to a well planned meeting. After introductions and background, participants were asked to select one of three areas - Funding, community engagement, or affordable housing opportunities. Each group had about 20-25 people join the discussion. Results of the discussions will be posted at Calgary Committee to End Homelessness and will be distributed to committee and subcommittee members. I won't get into the details of the discussions but I did leave feeling that our comments/concerns personal, mundane, provocative) were heard and will be considered as part of the plan. On a personal note, I suggested my longstanding idea about micro community based solutions through city community associations and there was significant uptake and consensus. The subcommittee chair guaranteed that they would produce a communication plan that could be used to get this information and encouragement out to the 191 associations in Calgary.
I don't often anticipate committees to move forward - but I left encouraged.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Tuesday Thoughts

A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world.
Ibrahim Babangida

I am attending a public consultation on homelessness tomorrow and I hope we are ready to interpret our past failures and move forward with renewed commitment. It always concerns me that large consensus organizations have a very difficult time getting away from the status quo. I will update after the session to let you know if my apprehension was warranted.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Four Beautiful Words

For antone that has experienced difficulty because of systems, procedures, policies or excuses.

Posted by Mark on Seachangestrategies

I am just back after a couple of really brutal weeks on the road. You’ve been reading in the papers that travel is hard this summer, but you have to experience it to appreciate the almost universal breakdown in customer service. That’s left me thinking about the few examples of good customer service we’ve seen. And I’ve discovered the four magic words that foreshadow a rare and precious helpful moment:

“Let me try something.”

That is the sound of someone flipping the autopilot switch off and using their human judgment, experience and creativity to actually solve a problem. They were the words we heard in New York when a United gate agent worked the system to get us on a flight after we were stranded by the freak New York rains. Its what the kid at Verizon said when I asked if there was any way to get a cell phone number ending in “00.” It’s practically a mantra when you call JetBlue.

Part of what makes those four words and the actions they foretell so beautiful, sadly, is their rarity. We could fill the blog with moments of indifferent and unhelpful customer “service” from the past two weeks alone. Here’s one tip: if you cannot get what you need from United airlines online, drive over to the airport and deal with a human. Their phone help system is 100% useless.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Three Questions

With slight modification from Philanthropy 2173

1. What do I care about enough to dedicate my time and money to?
2. Who can help me do it?
3. How do I know if they are doing a good job?

Simple but not easy.
With a slight modification from Philanthropy 2173

Three key questions

1. What do I care about enough to dedicate my time and money to?
2. Who can help me do it?
3. How do I know if they are doing a good job?

Simple. But not easy.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Today

After a great trip to Montreal filled with sightseeing, cycling, shopping and self indulgence it was great to find this post on Cool People Care

5 minutes of caring
How May I Help You?
by Sam Davidson (Thursday, August 9, 2007)

This is the magic phrase of all relationships.

Pay careful attention today to see if there are any opportunities to help someone. Chances are, we hustle through our days and don't notice all the people at the office, at home, or around town that could use a hand. See if you can hold the door open for someone. Find out if anyone needs a ride somewhere. Ask around if anyone would like some coffee or a snack. Often times, we don't like to ask for help. Change the conversation by asking if they need it first. Simple, random favors are a great way to show you care.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Short Vacation


I am on my way to Montreal for a few days and wanted to leave you with these;

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

"Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations." -- Elizabeth Drew

"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings." –- Hodding Carter

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." -- Jawaharal Nehru

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

A Better Place

One of my favorite blogs - Mr. Besilly asks "If you could focus on one idea that would make your life a better place to live starting tomorrow, would you do it?

If that one thing had a positive effect not only on you but on someone else in direct proximity to your life, would you be even more motivated to do it?

Do you know what time it is?

It's never too late to get started.
Or is it?"

What if you started on August 2nd, determined to make a difference in someone's life?
Who would you choose? What would you do? What is stopping you?

Improve

In an attempt to improve the content and style of this blog, I am asking one of you lurkers to step out of the shadows and make a comment that includes an email that I can use to contact you. I would like to begin developing future content that is of interest to readers and your opinion would be very helpful. Thanks

Oceans 13 Survey