You don't have to be rich to pay it forward

When I retired in 2012 and moved to Pennsylvania, I kept telling my friends this would be my time of giving back.  I started volunteering at a therapeutic riding center near my home.  Started learning Reiki, something I had wanted to do since my twenties. Volunteered at the local Food Pantry and a local Humane Society.  I even offered my Reiki services to the senior citizen facility in town but they weren’t keen on the “new age” stuff.

Over time I cut down on my activities.  Cleaning a litter box the size of a kiddie pool at the Humane Society “cat” house did a number on my asthma.   The local Food Pantry had so many volunteers we kept stepping all over ourselves.  I still volunteer at the therapeutic riding center on a lot of different levels.  I’m doing my Reiki healing thing often for little or no compensation. If someone needs an energy blast, I will oblige.  Things have died down now to a dull roar. So I guess I am actively giving back or really paying it forward. But they are totally different concepts, I think.  I didn’t give it much thought until now.

The concept of paying it forward has a foundation in history. In 1784, founding father Ben Franklin lent one Benjamin Webb some money asking in a letter that Mr. Webb not repay him directly. Instead, Franklin hoped that Webb would at some point meet an “honest man” in need of financial help and pass the money along to him.  And so the concept of paying it forward crept into our historical framework.  I guess what I called my “time of giving back” is really a time of “paying it forward”.  I didn’t use money though.  I’ve always been a sweat equity kind of person.   So paying it forward for me involves doing, rather than contributing financially. 
 

I just arranged for a new restaurant here in Milford PA to serve crepes at a meeting with some town people at the therapeutic riding center.  My husband Dave and I want them to succeed.  We really don’t know them well, just started having crepes there about once a week.  Maybe its selfish, because we love good food.  But seeing a new business thrive was something we wanted to do. Life has been good to Dave and I. We are retired, living in a house we love, surrounded by our animals.  We have a few good friends we can depend on.  So why not pay it forward?  You need not have been lent money and told to repay it to someone else.  You don’t have to be rich.  And best of all, it can be fun.

 

 

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Vera's Rave'n - The many aspects of Shamanism



Meditation for accepting another's path

If I have never walked the path of my brother

If I have never felt his pain

If my lessons have not walked a darkened path

If I hold every thought every feeling every lesson within my soul

I will hold every judgment on this path that I embark on now

In my own evaluation

Will I reach my hand out to my brother

Only seeing his light

Remembering only the love

As we reach out light to another soul

We will allow that connection of light

The connection of our own soul to another

Both of us becoming part of the universe

Connecting

Being

Both taking our rightful place

Leaving all darkness

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Kathleen Santora teaches meditations and self-healing through the understanding of one’s own personal energy. A spiritual healer for the past 30 years, Kathleen began trance healing later when she became aware that angels were working with her during healings. She has since learned to step back and allow her angels to come forward and work through her.

Giving Back through Taboo Words - Guest Blog by Jessica McWhirt

Today, guest Blogger Jessica McWhirt, shares how it feels to give back to the community through the empowering performance of this collection of risqué monologues.
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As the word “vagina” broke from my lips, the audience’s eyes widened a little, mouths opened slightly, and wine-filled glasses hung midair awaiting my next words.

Even though my words make my audience recoil in their chairs, I know we’re creating awareness. 

It’s not easy to hear taboo subjects, let alone repeat forbidden words in front of 600 eyes. My Vagina Monologues cast and the hundreds of casts throughout the world swallow uncomfortable topics and silences to raise awareness of violence against women. The money we raise from these performances goes directly to an organization that works to end violence against women within our community.

“I bet you’re worried,” I say, as I stare directly into the stranger’s eyes sitting in the front row. “We were worried,” follows. “We were worried about vaginas.”

I’ve directed The Vagina Monologues for the past three years and it never gets easier, I just get better at handling people and details. The women who join my cast are drawn to The Vagina Monologues just like anyone is drawn to anything. Something in this play hits a nerve: a sensitive nerve, a hurt nerve, a strong nerve, an angry nerve, a funny nerve, an abused nerve.

The cast of women and I connect with each other between the lines in the play; where the details of our lives try to hide, but whenever we repeat a certain line, the emotional charge it elicits washes over our faces. We can’t hide our emotions when we practice in front of each other. Some of us choke it back while others let the tears flow. There’s always a gentle smile or sincere hug that follows in our group. We won’t hide our emotions.

We connect with our audience as they listen to harsh words describing rape, and in the same play, the hilariousness of fantasizing about Burt Reynolds. The energy of our audience wavers and flows just like the moon pulls the ocean. It’s not an easy task to make someone laugh at the thought of discovering one’s vagina in one monologue, while another monologue triggers a suppressed memory. But at the end of each performance, someone leaves touched, unafraid, and empowered by “vaginas,” growing our Vagina Warrior circle throughout the community.

We don’t perform these monologues to become stars. We don’t spend months practicing and memorizing lines just to forget them the day after our performance. We are slaves to these words because they inevitably free us. We perform this play to free the men and women in the audience who have been hurt in the past or are currently hurting in hopes that when they no longer hurt, it will help others. We do it for ourselves, we do it for each other, and we do it for our community. We are Vagina Warriors. 



The cast of the Vagina Monologues - Denver, Colorado



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Jessica McWhirt talking to the audience

Jessica McWhirt is an avid cyclist, activist, and writer. She spends the weekends riding 100s of miles and the nights pouring her soul on to paper. Every February you can expect her on stage. She co-runs and manages Cyclizing.com and has her own travel writing blog: jessicaptain.wordpress.com. She does it all with the support of her cat, Klaus.


Paying it Forward - volunteering time and experience

My young family (Step Dad, Mom, little
brother, me and our son) right before my high
school graduation.

I was a teen parent.  While my husband is the father of all of my boys, I had our first child when I was 15 and we didn't get married until I was 22.  I attended a school for teen moms during my pregnancy and the semester after I had our son.  After returning to mu home school for a year and a half,  I graduated and went on to college with the help and support of my mom and step dad.  While being a teen parent was difficult, I thank God for that experience.  That broadening of my horizons.  The flip flop in my world view. The paradigm shift. The removal of my rose colored glasses.  Even though I didn't graduate college, I did go on to be a successful professional with a respectable salary and the ability to support my family with my husband.

Staying afloat

One of my talents has been creativity with numbers.  My mom struggled financially and, while she wasn't the most organized person, she kept us afloat.  With her help in the beginning, teaching me to pay bills and take care of your family first, I have learned to make a mean budget.  I feel like my budgeting skills have kept our family in the black when we might have drowned financially.  My husband would agree. After we got married, we lived in low income housing. I worked double shifts as a waitress and my husband was working temp jobs downtown and riding the bus because we only had one car.  My creative budgeting skills kept us with a roof over our heads and food on our table and clothes on our backs.  We struggled, but we came out on top.

Keep track of where your money goes and plan for expenses

One of the main struggles a lot of low-income families (heck, a lot of families!) face is the lack of organization skills.  They had never been given direction on how to make things work.  No one had taken the time to show them, to help them make sense of the financial pieces of life.  This is how much you have coming in and this is how much you have going out.  No wonder why your account is overdrawn.  If you don't keep track of where your money goes and plan for expenses, they can surprise you in a bad way and could force you to make decisions between equally important things like food and electricity.  Many people don't know of the resources available to help through tough financial times.  There's help out there for food, help for electricity for low income, help for childcare, help for school lunches and child insurance through school districts.  Many people don't know how to ask for help.

I enjoy helping people make the most of their lives.  At Mind Key, we can help you find the tools that you need to be successful living and working your passion.  Check out the Store for info on how we can help you!

Look around and take stock of your life.  Who has helped you on your path?  Can you give back to the community?

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The Grounding Rod - Focusing your energy in the present moment



Mind Key: Giving back to the community at large

In June's Mind Key Issue we will be sharing stories of giving back and paying it forward. 

Sometimes this is referred to as karma, but we prefer to look at it simply as energy.  We receive what we put out, which is why the best way to change the world is by changing your personal world.  This creates an incredible ripple effect that touches the lives of others, who then pay the good energy forward.  Not only that, but it raises your individual vibration so that you attract more of what you give into the world back to yourself.

I like to compare this to the phenomenon of love.  No matter how much love you give, it never diminishes, only grows.  Giving back works the same way.

We feel fulfilled and whole when we give of ourselves in ways that touch us, which is why this month we will be sharing the stories of a mentor who found a mentee; a man who wanted to play music, entertain and socialize, who created a business and a life around those passions; plus many other stories from those who love to give back, and thereby receive ten times more in return even though receiving isn't necessarily the aim.

Mind Key runs its core beliefs on giving back.  That's why we pride ourselves on being a platform for those who are also giving back, while giving themselves the permission and space to do what they do best, and share with people who truly connect with their vision and belief systems.  Mind Key also shares a large amount of information for those looking for healing, connection, self-discovery, and a chance to build a business and a life of their dreams.  Mind Key is promotion for any business or event that agrees with our philosophy of striving to love each moment on this earth by doing those things that leave you feeling whole and fulfilled. 

Without your support, Mind Key would not exist.

No matter how much love you give, it never diminishes, only grows.  Giving back works the same way.

This month we will be launching our new website (it's in the works) and are looking for your help and support on our journey.  For two years we have been giving back to the community at large, and now we're hoping you can offer us what we need to keep doing the work that will have others doing what they love every day of their lives, too.

Please stay posted this month as we launch our campaign, and to see how you can help.