Member Area | ServiceSpace

Money And Intangibles Based In Love

Nov 10, 2020, 4 comments, 15 smiles [Below is a stunning story from Ruth, on her experience receiving a priceless gift, that surfaced in the Priceless Pricing Pod that began this week.] â€¨Paradoxically, my most priceless gift involves a gift of money. â€¨â€¨The year my husband and I divorced, our daughter entered college and our son exited into the world. Despite the fact that my position at the college where I had worked almost twenty years contributed toward children’s college tuition as a benefit (one of the reasons I had stayed easily in high satisfaction work that paid a low salary), my daughter's first comprehensive college bill was a larger amount than my entire yearly salary! In the emotional turmoil of our divorce, my husband had opted not to pay any college expenses because both children were over 18, so legally he did not have to provide college funds. No amount of my normal creativity, organization and determination partnered ... Read Full Story

6 Lessons From Our Summer Interns

Aug 30, 2020, 13 comments, 18 smiles Couple weeks back, fifteen of us completed a memorable summer internship. Across seven seemingly unstoppable weeks, 7 interns and 8 mentors came together to deepen in service. What transpired moved all of us, and we continue to be disarmed by the ripples that flow on. When summer internship applications came in this Spring, Vishesh noted: "It's hard to say who's going to be the intern and who’s going to be the mentor this summer." Indeed, the service-hearted intentions and experiences these young hearts articulated was so telling. As we dove into the summer, they showed up in full form every week. Rolling up their sleeves in concrete action, they served on existing ServiceSpace projects, as well as initiated their own service projects -- some of which are slated to continue throughout the year! Expanding their thinking, they'd read a new book every week related to values of service and kindness, and took ... Read Full Story

Glimpse Of Laddership Circles This Spring

Apr 25, 2020, 11 comments, 39 smiles 2020 will certainly be a year to remember. In our ecosystem of aspiring generosity entrepreneurs, it also marks our fifth year of Laddership Circles. Couple weeks back, 30 project initiators and 14 volunteers across 11 countries have circled up for 3 more rounds of these virtual circles. Each of us signed up to give 7-10 hours weekly to the six-week learning journey through the hands, head, and heart. With hands, we engage daily practices in our lives; with head, we share reflections on uncommon articles and case studies; with heart, we explore the intersection of inner change and outer service. Through it all, we learn from and inspire each other, tuning into patterns of positive deviance that our collective consciousness is surfacing. From that space, it's been remarkable to witness everyone's budding intentions converge around questions of: How do we design for inner transformation? Can we innovate in a gift economy? What would ... Read Full Story

Kindness Contagion During Coronavirus :)

Mar 14, 2020, 1 comments, 8 smiles A few stories some of us stumbled across, around constructive (and beautiful!) responses to coronavirus: Kindness Proves Contagious As Coronavirus Spreads 10 Heartwarming Ways Everyday Heroes Are Helping People Affected By Coronavirus Also, a 1.5-min video of the woman distributing masks, featured in story above How To Keep The Greater Good In Mind During The Coronavirus Outbreak After coronavirus cancelled their daughter's bat mitzvah party, a family turned the food into meal deliveries for people in quarantine Coronavirus acts of kindness: Are you committing them? Have you witnessed any? (They're polling readers, via form submission, for any acts of kindness done!) Stories of Kindness From Wuhan Also, few educators have been dialoguing on how to hold space in suddenly-turned-virtual classrooms for intimate sharing, dynamic engagement, and transformation: How To Hold Virtual Learning Space In These Times? If others have thoughts, insights, stories or resources that come to mind, would be great to hear more...! :)

After Mindfulness: In Service To A Common Heart

Jul 10, 2019, 7 comments, 42 smiles Last week, Diana and Coleman convened bunch of us at UC Berkeley for a conference that explored a unique question: What's After Mindfulness? How do the values behind mindfulness extend beyond meditation? Their vision was not only a curation of content, but a movement -- a convening space for values and transformation -- the seeds of which would ripple forward long after the two-day event. What began as two non-Buddhists signing up to organize an 11th Global Conference on Buddhism turned into a remarkable journey in innovating around the age-old values of our human spirit. In a recent newsletter, Nipun recounted: "Originally, Diana and Coleman invited us to offer a presentation; but as they learned more about our organizing principles, they became enthralled with the idea of spreading a culture of non-commercial spirit of service throughout their conference. We invited them to move from legal contracts to trust in friendship, and they ... Read Full Story

July 4th Garden Day At Banyan Grove!

Jul 05, 2019, 1 smiles What a joy to spend the day together at Banyan Grove yesterday, in service to our community land, space, and inner and outer landscapes! Here's a few photos -- including our group one (where we'll photoshop Ari in:))! Feel free to add yours. At the start of the day, Sanved noted, "Service is contributing to society in some way," and Lena reflected, "It's when you give without expecting anything in return." Aligned with that spirit, Helen and Pragalbha quickly got to work in the kitchen, prepping a gourmet lunch for the day's crew, as Ubin and Karuna graciously joined for couple hours before their other July 4th festivities and Kozo and Fox arrived ready-for-anything! Then, Birju, Anne-Marie, Iver, and Ari arrived, adding a boost of energy to the whole crew! By the time the morning ended, almost our green bins were brimming with tall grass, Kozo befriended a praying mantis, intriguing long-forgotten items ... Read Full Story

Nuggets From Melissa Stephens's Call

Jan 21, 2019, 2 comments, 15 smiles Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Melissa Stephens. Melissa Stephens is a spirited elementary and middle school teacher with 24 years of classroom experience, a wife, and mother of three children. At Kent Middle School in Kentfield, California, she created a groundbreaking Service Innovation class based on research of how service learning can cultivate student leaders. In 2015, she received the Golden Bell Award on behalf of her school district, for their work with this class. An author, poet, and actress, Melissa produced and starred in a one-woman show, based on her journey of healing through abuse experienced as a young child. She authored Little Miss and Spirit Bear's Kiss, a children's book about rediscovering one's light after walking through darkness. She reflects, "My journey here has been one filled with self-discovery and healing which guides me to live my educational philosophy: 'Be the person you ... Read Full Story

What's Love's Business Plan?

Dec 30, 2018, 15 comments, 36 smiles As we wind down on our final days of 2018, I'm reminded how around this time last year, a crew of volunteers were bustling into action, scheming up surprises for a palpable “Gandhi 3.0” retreat last January. After the gathering, with so many folks brimming with energy to spill forward the goodness, it felt natural to collectively deepen further through a 6-week virtual Laddership Circle, to learn from each other, explore transformation-led design principles, experiment within ourselves and with our communities, and engage labors-of-love that reflect the emergent field of collective wisdom. Last Spring, 18 of us from 9 different countries signed on, and what a journey it was! Below are some of the many highlights. “What’s love’s business plan?” Ana genuinely asked. "What system designs create the conditions for transformation?" We quickly realized there's no one-size-fits-all answer, but it was remarkable to witness how the collective space of the circle supported each ... Read Full Story

Sister Lucy's Four Days In California!

Oct 27, 2018, 11 comments, 34 smiles Sister Lucy visited us for a few days last week. The morning before she landed, someone made some South-India breakfast for her and left it with bouquet of flowers outside of the Mehta household. Soon after Sister landed, she had a "leisurely 20 minute" breakfast, as we spoke at a San Jose's Center for Spiritual Living. She wowed the crowd with her candid stories, as they not only gave her a standing ovation but waved to all the kids at Maher. She inspiringly spoke about interfaith. "On Christmas, you ask all my children, how many of you are Christian? They will all raise their hands. At Diwali, how many are Hindu? All hands. At Eid, how many are Muslim? All hands." From there, we head to Banyan Grove for a "leisurely 7 minute" tea-time, after which we headed to The Pollination Project's salon, hosted impeccably by Ari and Ajay. In his follow-up note, ... Read Full Story

Getting Ready For Two More Laddership Circles!

Jul 29, 2018, 12 comments, 20 smiles This week, 27 of us are gearing up for another round of Laddership Circles! After a year of smaller, themed circles -- from business to healthcare to youth values, design principles and beyond -- we're thrilled to now head into two fresh concurrent circles (which we've nicknamed 'Yin' and 'Yang' :)) in the next six weeks! Just a glance at the quality intent behind the applications alone has been inspiring to behold! One young engineer wrote: In this era, our minds our valued and trained above all else while our heart are often neglected. I feel that my truest introspection comes not through a mental process but through the emotional center of solar plexus when my head and heart are in alignment and can communicate freely. My close friends may say my curiosity heavily defines my character. I suspect my passion for introspection is invigorated as I am able to reach ... Read Full Story

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