Give-- Joy to the World

I believe that empowerment is powerful. It has the capacity to rectify offense, transform tragedies, assure hope, and sustain joy. It has the ability to connect people from nations, countries, and continents apart. It is capable of weaning differences of race, ethnicity, gender, culture, and religion. Empowerment reminds us of our shared humanity and, in doing so, encourages us to see the needs others as equally, if not more, important than our own. It radically changes the way we love, the way we share, the way we sacrifice, the way we rebuild, the way we dream, the way we inspire, and the way we live.It is officially December 1^st, and the Christmas and holiday season is fresh upon us. For some of us, this is crunch time, but also the best time of the year: we begin to fill our schedules, plan parties, see to our shopping lists, wrap presents, decorate homes, reminisce and relive old traditions, and cherish time with our loved ones. But, through the business of the season, my hope is that we will be reminded of our impact and of the light that we each carry. As we prepare to shower our loved ones with gifts that show our appreciation and love for them, I want to provide opportunities for you to see your gift go further. Over the course of this month, I am going to feature the work of various organizations that are making an impact in communities throughout the world. I not only want you to be familiar with how these organizations are making a tangible impact in these communities, but I want you to become aware of how your talents, skills, dreams, passions, and everything that makes you unique can contribute to the work of these organizations.As I started preparing for this series, my hope was that I would be able to offer our readers with the means to buy gifts that would go further, that would make a real impact in the world. But, that hope surpassed anything I could have imagined it to become. As I was interviewing CEOs and co-founders of these organizations, I came to realize that our empowerment stretches far beyond even buying gifts that give back. Our empowerment and our talents, our passions and our dreams, have the capacity to add to the work of these organizations in a way that they might not have seen before. Our empowerment has the immense capacity to strengthen the transformation that these organizations are carrying out in communities around the world. Our empowerment has created a unique force within each one of us that adds a valuable and lasting presence to the work of these organizations so that they are able to surpass the dreams and goals that they have set for themselves.In my preparation, I also noticed a parallel between all the meaning we associate with this Christmas or holiday season and the meaning in the work of these organizations. Love, joy, and peace are sentiments that we associate with the goodness of the holiday season. We see lights strung in trees, we feel magic in the air, we hear laughter ringing throughout our dinner conversations, and we are filled with the richness of love, joy, and peace. Then, with the joy that is so present in our hearts, we find ourselves more compassionate and more generous in the way that we treat those around us. This mantra of love, joy, and peace that we see written on cards, engrained in decorations, or even exchanged in greetings becomes prevalent in our actions. “‘Tis the season!” we declare as we throw spare change in charity buckets, or offer spare dollars to someone in need, or simply lend a helping hand. But, the meaning of love, joy, and peace goes far beyond the timely constraints of the holiday season. The embodiment of love, joy, peace, compassion, kindness, generosity, and hope, then, are reflected in the way that we treat one another. The joy we see in Christmas cheer is found again when we support an organization that replants trees throughout the world. The hope that we experience during the holidays is found again when we involve ourselves with an organization that empowers people to rise above poverty. The peace that we see so eminent in this Christmas season is found again when we support the work of an organization that restores dignity to survivors of human trafficking. The compassion that we practice throughout our generosity during this season is found again when we contribute to the work of an organization that provides clean drinking water to the roughly 660 million people in the world who are lacking it.My hope for this series is that the power and influence that we see so eminent in these organizations would inspire and empower us to use our capabilities, our strength, our talents, our dreams, our hopes, and our ambitions to contribute to the transformation that is enacting positive change and restoring love, joy, and peace throughout the world. I hope that through seeing the work of these organizations, Sevenly, Tentree, Krochet Kids International, 31 Bits, iSanctuary, Generosity Water, and the Little Market, that we would be inspired to first recognize the unique value that we are each able to offer to the world and that we would use that uniqueness to inspire a movement of empowerment wherever we are.‘Tis the season … to change the world.

[Self Series] Empowering Yourself

Before every sports match, game, or even practice, sports teams allot time for warming up. During this time, they stretch to warm up their muscles and they perform drills and exercises in order to perfect their skills. This period of warming up is crucial for a successful or hard-fought game because it begins to condition the body and the mind for the duration of the game. Usually, right before a game, sports teams gather in huddles and go through a series of ceremonial practices in order to boost team morale. In essence, the time before any sports match or game is crucial for empowering the team and preparing the team for “battle”.So, as we close out this series, we should allot this time for our own “warm up”. In order to condition our minds and prepare our hearts and souls for the matches and battels we face every day, it is important to reflect on what we have learned, how we have grown, and what we have come to know about ourselves. Throughout this series, we have probed and prodded at areas in our lives in order to deeply evaluate our strength and our growth through that strength.First, we started with loving ourselves. We learned to love everything that has shaped and guided us to be the people we are today. We learned to love all the joys of becoming who we are along with the mess that has allowed us to stumble into the people we have become. By learning to love ourselves, we have found a deeper and more powerful love to share with the world around us. We continued with expressing ourselves. Here, we learned that there is authenticity, opportunity, authority, and freedom in the way that we express ourselves. Once we learn to rightfully and honestly express how we are feeling and what we are thinking, we give others the opportunity to listen and we allow ourselves to bridge communication gaps by listening in return. We then went on with overcoming self-doubt. We drew upon knowing ourselves and loving ourselves in order to speak truth into our circumstances and we reminded ourselves that we are capable of overcoming fear and doubt. But, we challenged ourselves to surround ourselves with people who will reiterate that truth and speak it into our lives when our voices grow weary. After that, we explored growing up and growing into ourselves. We learned to give ourselves grace while we are figuring out what it is we want to do and who it is we want to be. More importantly, we learned that we are living with each choice we make and each risk we take, each failure we undergo and each success we achieve. For, life is the accumulation of our actions in the simple and little moments which build up our character and prepare us in the event that we take on a paramount task. We continued with seeing ourselves. Here, we learned that the power to love ourselves, be secure with ourselves, and respect ourselves is stronger than any other power that could be given to us by another person. We learned to see ourselves and treat ourselves in such a way that we shower ourselves with the love and worth that we deserve. We learned to settle down with ourselves. We learned to give ourselves the slack that we so desperately want to throw to someone else because, in the end, the way we know ourselves and treat ourselves is a reflection of the power we have within us. Then, we went on with dignifying ourselves. We learned that we are worth it, that our uniqueness gifts us with an influence that no one else in this world has. We challenged ourselves to live according to our worth and to act out of that worth. Finally, we embraced believing in ourselves. We learned to believe in our strength and character, in who we are and who we aspire to be. Likely, we learned to believe and invest in our dreams, for when we allow our dreams to soar, we welcome the opportunity of impacting the world.And now, we understand that all these areas of loving ourselves and growing into ourselves leads to empowering ourselves. Through constantly growing in loving ourselves, expressing ourselves, overcoming self-doubt, growing up, seeing ourselves, dignifying ourselves, and believing in ourselves, we will be all the more capable of empowering ourselves. Through this empowerment, we will realize and know our strength to continue to become all we can be. We will push ourselves to learn more about ourselves and more about the world. We will use the love we have grown for ourselves in order to better love those around us. In making our mark in this world, we will use what we have come to know about ourselves: our strength in times of fear and doubt, our perseverance in times of strife, our certainty in times of darkness, and our joy, knowledge, and passion in times of persecution. You see, when we continually grow in these areas, when we push ourselves beyond the limits we thought we could reach, we are empowering ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves. Once we keep elevating the mark of our “best version” we continue to empower ourselves, and in doing so, we empower those around us. Our reach, then, surpasses the mark we set for ourselves and reaches the mark that we have been inspired to set for others. As we continue to push ourselves to love ourselves more, express ourselves more, know ourselves more, and believe in ourselves more, we inspire others to do the same. So, a community of people who are continually empowering themselves and one another have the power to impact the world, to rid the deepest of oppression, to replace the darkest sorrow with the most exuberant joy, and to spread love and light to the farthest ends of the earth.Now that we are all warmed up, let us go forth into our worlds, into our daily lives, and spread our unique influence. Let us live with courage, strength, truth, and dignity. Let us give others the strength to live with passion and authenticity. Now that we are all warmed up, let us put up a good fight against daily battles because we know that our influence is significant, our courage is undeniable, and our story is worth being told.