We began this week with Cheryl Honey introducing us to Community Weaving, which aims at building and transforming communities by connecting people and their gifts and needs. How might you describe your relationship with your own gifts and needs?
12-2p PDT | 3-5p EDT | 7-9p GMT
Click here to register
We heard story after story from Cheryl how lives were enriched, and even transformed, when people's needs for support were met by generous gifts of time, goods and/or services. Everyone possesses gifts, though it is often a challenge to acknowledge, recognize and appreciates their value. People often describe the joy of giving and having their gift received as being at least as rich as being the receiver of someone's generosity.
Allowing one's self to identify and validate one's needs for support, beyond guilt or shame, can often be a challenge to the "do it on your own" training our "independence" culture indoctrinates us with at an early age. However, the spirit of community is rapidly rising and spreading.
Systems and infrastructures built around exchanging gifts and services with localized needs are actually laying the foundation for a new economy—one that deepens and extends the value of our human relationships within our transactions. As we explore the possibilities and impact of how we might strengthen and transform our communities though initiatives like Community Weaving, it is important for each person to understand their relationship with their own gifts and needs.
Every one of these gift transactions has a common factor, each transaction has a human being at the center. The success and longevity of any kind of value-based, if not gift, economy, will depend on each person's valuation of their own gifts, and equally important, the value of our needs as well. The more a person holds themselves in true esteem and respect, the more that person will transfer and allow that respect, to and with others. Our perception of our world is always done with mirrors. We project our inner state outwards, always. There are no exceptions.
- What might you consider to be the gifts you bring to your community?
- How valuable do you feel your gifts are to others? What do you feel is your most valuable gift?
- What might compel you to share your most valuable gift? What might you receive in return to feel complete?
- Imagine you have an immediate need for support you can't fulfill on your own, nor do you have the funds to pay for it. How do you feel as you realize you need to go into your community for help? How might asking for help, in this way, affect how you feel about your self?
Enter a comment below to tell us who you are, the gift(s) and/or resources you bring and and requests for support you may have. Then go sign up as a good neighbor (see below...)
*********************************************************
Invitation Into Action:
Who would like to see an Occupy Cafe resource section where people could post gifts and requests? This infrastructure exists and is in the process of being upgraded through the Occupy Cafe good neighbor group (see below).
How many of you would like to form an Occupy Cafe operations circle to help organize and energize this potentially powerful resource that connects gifts and needs?
Let us know in your comment below.
Sign up as a good neighbor on http://www.goodneighbors.net/gnr.html within the Occupy Cafe good neighbor group on goodneighbor.net. Use the group ID "CWOC" to do this.
*********************************************************
