Living Into A New Story: My Day With ServiceSpace! Posted by Brian Conroy, Feb 02 2019 I woke at 4:30 am, did my yoga, some quick chanting and meditation, and was on the road by 6:00. My traveling companions were Rick, an architect, and his wife, Donna, a veterinarian and healer. Our destination was a retreat in Marin County, sponsored by ServiceSpace, an all-volunteer organization whose goal is to encourage everyday people (that’s us!) to contribute in meaningful ways to the world around them. The shepherd of ServiceSpace is Nipun Mehta, a man whose exuberant energy is infectious. He believes in the inherent generosity of others and draws it out of them through the sincerity of his own generosity. Five minutes after you meet Nipun you feel like family. He radiates a positive energy that fills up a room. When he wraps his powerful arms around you in an embrace, you know this is a guy who is totally present, who practices loving kindness in every interaction ... Read Full Story

Vietnam Giftivism Update 2019 Posted by Giang Dang, Feb 01 2019 Vietnam Update: Welcoming the Year of Pig 2019 Dear ServiceSpace friends, The Year of the Pig is coming. Here in Vietnam we are busy getting ready: cleaning the house, decorating the altar of worshipping ancestors, cooking and travelling to be with our families. For us, ServiceSpace is a home, a family, so we travel to be with you in spirit. After I came back from the September retreat at Banyan Grove, it was imperative that I share the experience with friends. So we all gathered at a beautiful eco resort near a national park. Almost all friends who were with Nipun in the May retreat in Vietnam came for the gathering. Some of us are “back-to the farm” and laddering the natural farming movement. Some of us work with youth. Some of us are full time volunteers who are engaged in local initiatives. I talked non-stop for almost 2 days (there was so much ... Read Full Story

Moved By Love: Just Give, Give, And Give Posted by Shaalini Srinivasan, Feb 01 2019 Latest issue of 'Moved By Love' newsletter is themed Just Give, Give, And Give. "No demands forever; just give, give, and give" That's the love song that Kanti kaka left us all with. That's the spirit in which two sisters are walking a 2800-km pilgrimage, to give, give, and give; and that's the seed that parents are sowing as they come together in a mindful families retreat!

At The Edges Of Our Generosity Posted by Anuj Pandey, Jan 31 2019 [We had a very powerful share at last night's Awakin Circle around generosity, and it made us all feel into how, without any coercive effort, an organic safe space is created among us -- a space that is able to lovingly hold so many journeys. Thank you, all!] I tend to freeze up and get a little scattered when I am talking to a lot of people, so I wrote down what I have to say, 'cause I did have something I wanted to say. I'm suffering deeply and I'm unable to extend generosity to others at this moment. So much has been stolen from my body and soul a few months ago that I spend most of my day trying to regenerate my relationship with my limbs and organs. I think in times of deep trauma, sometimes the most amount of generosity you can extend is just giving yourself enough room for ... Read Full Story

Feb 2019: London Gatherings & Global Inspiration Posted by Trishna Shah, Jan 31 2019 February 2019 - London Gatherings Awakin Circles: Pimlico, Brighton, Harrow and Shoreditch Each month, you're invited to join Awakin Circles at locations around London, where we meditate for the first hour, engage in a circle of sharing based on a reading, and conclude with a home-cooked vegetarian dinner together. Weds, Feb 6th at 7pm (Pimlico, Central London) Weds, Feb 13th at 7:15pm (Brighton) RSVP Here Weds, Feb 20th at 7pm (Harrow, Northwest London) Fri, Feb 22nd at 7:30pm (Shoreditch, Central London) To RSVP, visit Awakin London and use the drop-down box in the top right corner to select a date/location. *Note: Mill Hill Awakin is on break in February and will resume in March Inspiring Tidbits from Around the World... "Welcome Home": You'll love reading these beautifully curated highlights from Awakin Circles around the world in 2018! Top 10 Kindful Kids of 2018: Families may enjoy reading the Top 10 Kindful Kids of 2018, a weekly newsletter that inspires parents and ... Read Full Story

Tway Began Finding Heart-shaped Rocks On ... Posted by Chris Johnnidis, Jan 30 2019 Tway began finding heart-shaped rocks on her long beach walks, and soon was finding dozens, and then hundreds. Locals who had lived there for decades remarked on how unusual that seemed, but Tway wasn't surprised--she took it as an affirming sign of the leap she had made years earlier. After listening further, she felt called to match each heart rock with a story about an act of kindness, and birthed the project: heartrocks. She's taking her time, waiting for the right stories to come in--maybe you know one? (Hat tip to a certain anonymous member of KindSpring for initially sharing this story :)) And here she is sharing some of the background story on a recent podcast called "The Kindness Podcast". In honor of the power of small, a couple related quotes: "There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic." --Anais Nin "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world." --Howard Zinn

Mood-o-Meter :) Posted by sapna shroff, Jan 30 2019 [Couple weeks back, in our Educators Laddership Circle, several of us had an idea to make an "emotion odometer" to cultivate greater emotional literacy and self-awareness with students. Inspired by the ideas, I tried it out, and what an inspiring experiment it was!] Last week, I made a mood-o-meter with my students. It made for a super satisfying class! The mood-o-meter chart was put up in the class and every child got a post-it sticker to write out their name and stick it in the quadrant that corresponds with their current mood. It was essential to assure the children that it is completely okay to feel what they are feeling, as every colour is as beautiful as the other. This enabled them to be open and truthful with their feelings. They were told, "All colours are beautiful. Similarly, all emotions and feelings are as well. It’s okay to be a red, blue, yellow ... Read Full Story

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Kindness To Posted by Ameeta Martin, Jan 29 2019 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Kindness To Strangers. Albert Einstein spoke about widening our circles of compassion to include not just those nearest to us, but the whole of humanity. He felt by restricting our affection to those nearest to us, we imprison ourselves and succumb to a delusion that we are separate from each other. Our task is to free ourselves from this delusion and to love and embrace everyone, including strangers. - Ameeta

Laddership News: Laddership News: Grace And Preparation Posted by Jane Murray, Jan 27 2019 This month's 'Laddership Newsletter' was just posted online. It is said that a blessing occurs when grace meets preparation and this month's stories weave that truth beautifully. We have an eloquent study in sincere preparation from Jignasha and an account of grace as a tangible thing, a 'collage of living answers' from Audrey.

Nuggets From Shinzen Young's Call Posted by Rahul Brown, Jan 26 2019 Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Shinzen Young. Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant who frequently uses concepts from mathematics as a metaphor to illustrate the abstract concepts of meditation and who is building a bridge between contemplative practice and hard science. His interest in integrating meditation with scientific paradigms has resulted in collaborations with neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School and elsewhere in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. He aims to bring a secular mindfulness practice to a wider audience across faith traditions using revamped terminology and techniques as well as automated expert systems. He is well-known not only for his particular way of combining Eastern and Western science and thought traditions, but also for his categorical, systematic approach to meditation, outlined in his recent book, The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works (2016). We'll post the transcript of the call ... Read Full Story

Such A Beautiful Piece About Healing ... Posted by Victoria Crawford, Jan 24 2019 Such a beautiful piece about healing polarities and remembering other as 'brother'. Here's an excerpt ... Hands Across the Hills rose in response to the 2016 presidential election. Residents of our progressive MA town gathered to mourn the election results and then to organize — because mourning has limited social impact and organizing lights up the world. One suggested effort was to form a group to bridge political divides, which I chaired as I have decades of experience as an international peacebuilder in war-torn societies around the world. I immediately felt grateful for the opportunity as I knew it would be inspiring and intriguing to design and facilitate this project. Finding participants in KY was a stroke of good fortune. A community organizer there named Ben Fink posted an article online that a member of our group discovered, and the rest is history. We formed a partnership and are forever grateful for ... Read Full Story

Now Are The Rough Things Smooth Posted by Jane Murphy, Jan 23 2019 In our Educators Laddership Circle this week, I was reminded of this beautiful poem: Now Are The Rough Things Smooth by Mary Oliver Now are the rough things smooth, and the smooth things stand in flickering slats, facing the slow tarnish of sun-fall. Summer is over... And therefore the green is not green anymore but yellow, beige, russet, rust: all the darknesses are beginning to settle in. And therefore why pray to permanence, why not pray to impermanence, to change, to - whatever comes next. Willingness is next to godliness. Once I watched a swallow playing with a feather, high in the blue air. The swallow wanted to fly and frolic; the feather just wanted to float. Many times the swallow dropped the feather, which drifted away, then went diving and careening after it. There are so many things to do in this world, and so many things to be done. Right now I'm glad to be agile and insistent. But, later! Then, I'll be happy to give up the quick burst, oh darling and important world, and just float away. ~ Mary Oliver, Now Are The Rough Things Smooth, from What Do We Know, Poems and Prose Poems

KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Bridging Posted by Ameeta Martin, Jan 23 2019 Latest issue of 'KindSpring Weekly' newsletter is themed Spotlight On Kindness: Bridging Divides. The greatest act of kindness is often to listen deeply. As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, even one hour of deep listening - compassionately allowing someone to empty his or her heart, without trying to correct or change perceptions - can help relieve suffering. And the more we know about another's story, the less possible it is to see that person as your enemy, or to dismiss the "other." - Preeta

Another Awakin In Austria! Posted by Elisa Margareta, Jan 21 2019 Johannes and I just hosted our first Awakin circle (in Austria) yesterday -- a full-moon night! We are so so grateful for all your support. It was a wonderful experience. My heart was filled with so much love and joy during the whole preparation time as well as the circle itself. I tried to great each new person by internally welcoming them and sending them the love I felt, as they came in, for I was able to tell without looking who it was (we only were 10 people :D). Afterwards my friend told me, how she had planned her meditation technique in advance and was prepared to follow her routine, but then when she entered the room, she said she was overwhelmed by the love she felt and just could not follow the routine she had planned, so she sat there filled with love and joy and for the first ... Read Full Story

Conversations: HIdden Things That Glow Posted by Richard Whittaker, Jan 21 2019 This month's 'Conversations' newsletter is themed HIdden Things That Glow. Having the opportunity to present a fresh issue of our newsletter always is always a lift. For me, spending time with our stories is like being fed. To start off with the newsletter’s new look, we have four special conversations. Just listening to Eduardo del Conde describing his journey into the world of Los Hombres del Arroz (the men of rice) was a rare gift... read more

Five Vows From Joanna Macy Posted by Xiaojuan Shu, Jan 21 2019 Happened to see the "Five Vows" again that dropped out of my wallet. The "Five Vows" that each participant took at the end of the 10-day intensive workshop led by Joanna Macy, a highly-respected elder who has dedicated her life to environmental and social activism, community building, systems thinking and deep ecology, Buddhist studies and practices, writing, offering Work That Reconnects workshops, translating and sharing the poems by Rainer Maria Rilke (a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist), and beyond. Five Vows: I vow to myself and to each of you: To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings. To live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume. To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and my brothers and sisters of all species. To support others in their work for the world and to ask for help when I feel the need. To pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.

Bayarea: This Wednesday's Speaker: Charles Eisenstein! Posted by ServiceSpace , Jan 21 2019 Dear Friends, Happy MLK Day! This Wednesday evening, we are delighted to have Charles Eisenstein as our guest speaker at Awakin Santa Clara. You can RSVP here. Back in 2002, Charles wrote his first book. Five months later, he checked his total sales: five copies. Married, with three kids, he was soon evicted from his apartment, left to wonder: why am I doing this work? For self or service? Soon after, he had a metaphysical experience where he was confronted with a follow-up question: are you willing to work invisibly in service? He said yes. "That was part one of the disintegration of personal ambition. Then, I had to disintegrate the ambition to do big things to change the world. On a five thousand year scale, an everyday act of kindness is no smaller than anything a president does," he realized. As the story goes, the more he let go, the more he was ... Read Full Story

Nuggets From Melissa Stephens's Call Posted by Audrey Lin, Jan 21 2019 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

Awakening RAK  - One Year In Pictures Posted by Pooja Zaveri, Jan 21 2019

Awakening RAK  - Dec 2018 - One Year Celebration Posted by Pooja Zaveri, Jan 21 2019 A year back in Dec 2017, Mr Nipun had visited RAK at Manohar Uncle and Neelam Auntie 's house and with lots of gratitude we have now been having awakening circles every month since then at their beautiful space in RAK. The session was on the last day of the year i.e. 31st of December 2018 and we began with one hour of silence. A lot of new faces also had joined in. The passage reading was from How Observation Changes Relationships by Vimala Thakar it was so nice to understand that we need not carry any residue over and just be free from it to enjoy the current moment and remaining awakened with thoughts that are full of positivity. Also as the author had rightly mentioned that we need to ask for forgiveness immediately to make our minds free. We had lots of views , discussions and this was followed with a lovely home cooked dinner which all of us relished. Happy New Year 2019!!