Happy December Daily Actors!
We are filled with gratitude for you and hope that you are feeling grateful, rested and ready for action. To close our most impactful year yet of inspiring positive action, we hope you will do TWO things. Join us for our Rainwater Harvesting Talk, upcoming workshops and our Holiday Happy Hour & Planting Party (we just can’t help but beautify and transform, even when enjoying holiday libations) and DONATE! If you have already made a donation, thank you. If not, what better day to donate than #GivingTuesday? The world needs more positive action and your support puts vital sustainability solutions in more hearts, hands and communities.
Recently, when wrestling with life’s big challenges, the garden gave me an insightful gift. Early last Sunday, I was sitting on my meditation stool, wrapped up like a burrito in my sleeping bag and many layers of cozy clothes. As I sat in the freezing cold, the air was still and quiet, all accept fall’s leaves breaking free and fluttering to the earth.
It felt good to have a nice stretch of days over the holiday weekend to pause and rest, to garden, give thanks and be with family and friends. As is the way this time of year, it was a huge fall – with conferences, program activities, Ripple the World and water-saving lawn transformations galore. I am perpetually astonished and grateful for how you, our team and this community steps up again and again to further enrich and transform lives and communities through inspired action.
While I’ve enjoyed the rest and been filled with gratitude, I’ve also felt an unsettled searching. Given the perilous state of our world, I’m often meditating on how to inspire the most transformative action in self, community and beyond. Over the past few days, my mind has been particularly stirred up with thoughts ranging from the Paris Climate Talks happening now to how we can mobilize the resources we need for Daily Acts and our local, regional and national partners to continue to step up, knowing that any climate agreement reached will likely be well short of ensuring a safe and stable climate. At the same time, I’ve been mesmerized by the early morning quiet, fall’s colors and those mulberry, pear and other leaves raining down from the trees in our garden.
Then it clicked and my insides rang with the insight of the season, just let go. That’s what fall does. Like the leaves, return home to rest, decompose and before long fuel a new season’s growth. Let go of getting it all done or finding all the answers. We just have to keep showing up, living and giving our best and having faith in the rest. As Barry Lopez questions and writes in regards to how one lives a moral and compassionate life amidst so much hurt and challenge, “There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”
It doesn’t mean the unsettled questioning goes away, but we can accept and feel joy in continually leaning into the light amidst the unknowns and unfinishedness of our lives and the great work of this time.
One of the big unknowns on my mind that you can help us with is whether we have the funds to continue to step up. After 14 years of incredible success and a rapidly growing demand for the solutions and programs we provide, Daily Acts is positioned to have even greater impact. By donating today on #GivingTuesday, you join people across the planet in the shared purpose of giving to celebrate generosity and create a better world.
Thank you for leaning into the light with us by reclaiming the power of your daily acts and all that you do to nurture the growth of our daily acts.