–  Edmund Burke

In 1991 I was on a business trip in China.  I worked for Kodak and we were visiting key customers throughout the country.  During the early part of the trip, when we were in Guangzhou visiting a photolab, I was approached by a small boy who was begging for money.  The boy couldn’t have been older than 5 or 6 — in wet socks, on the busy sidewalk in front of the customer’s business.  I immediately reached in to my pocket to grab some change when the local rep I was with stopped me.  He informed me that these kids are kidnapped from rural China and brought into the cities and used as begging slaves.  By giving money to the child, I would only encourage this behavior.  I looked into the boy’s eyes and shook my head no — and then walked away.  He stayed there for a few seconds with his hand out, and then left.

My own kids — Ashley and Tyler — were 5 and 7 at the time.  I thought about them, safe and warm and going to nice schools back in Tokyo — I thought about the little kid — a little begging slave — full of the same perfect potentional we all have, yet thwarted by horrible people in a horrible world.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  What was I supposed to do?  Could I solve this unbelievable travesty? 

Would I really have been doing the child and everyone else an injustice by giving him some money?  If I had given him money, would it have helped him?  My mind had paralyzed me into inactivity. 

What did my heart have to say?  I wasn’t sure.

A few days later I was in Beijing.  After visiting customers there, then taking a guided trip out to the Great Wall, I had a free evening.  I was warned by our local sales rep about giving the street beggars money — but my heart was telling me to get a couple of pocket fulls of change and to go hand it out until it was gone. 

So I did.

I made a point of looking into the eyes of every person I handed a coin to. After I handed out a couple of coins, I was mobbed — so I just moved in a circle and made sure that I handed out the money to different people until it was gone.  When I was out of coins, I held up my hands to show I had nothing left.  They didn’t believe me at first — and a few followed me for a bit as I walked around, but the excitement finally dissipated and I was left alone.

Had I taken too much of a risk?  Had I made a difference in the Chinese poverty rate?  Had I encouraged begging by my actions? All excellent questions, but my heart, now with a much clearer voice, confirmed to me that I had followed my path.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.”              

            — Carl Jung

Listen to your heart — then act.  By doing this your path will be illuminated.

Peace to you.

Rob, Mary and Wes

Join us each week as we learn and apply the Laws of Manifestation and Attraction to achieve ANYTHING!!

Intention Circle — Tuesday’s, Noon – 1pm — Heartsong (in Grants Pass, on 6th, between “G” and “H”)  NO CHARGE — Just a tiny donation of $1 to cover the room — bring your lunch!

        – Mohandas K. Gandhi

When I was 7, my Mom was our Cub Scout Den Mother.  In November of 1966, she wanted to impart a lesson to all of us Cubs about service, so she took up donations, and we assembled care baskets — including turkeys, stuffing and everything you needed for a first class Thanksgiving Dinner — and delivered them to folks in our little town — Burley, Idaho.  To this day I remember that experience and how it made me feel.

When I lived in Rochester, New York I was a youth leader at our church.  We decided one year to take up a collection from our congregation to buy Christmas gifts to deliver to people who wouldn’t be able to afford Christmas.  We collected the money, bought some really cool things — dolls, hotwheels, games — and a really awesome electric slot car set.  We wrapped them and worked with one of the local service agencies to identify folks that we could deliver them to.  When they evening came to deliver the presents — a few days before Christmas – I loaded the guys into my station wagon and we set off for the not-so-awesome part of Rochester.

The experience of delivering the gifts was incredible, but all our lives were touched by one delivery in particular — that awesome slot car set that we took to a 7 year-old boy, whose mother was being treated for cancer.  We had a little trouble finding the place, but we finally figured out where the apartment was.  I parked the car and the four of us got out and made our way to the door.  We knocked and received no answer.  We knocked again and heard a faint “hold on a minute” coming from somewhere inside.  We waited in front of the door while a bit of that Upstate New York December breeze nibbled at our necks.  Eventually a shy boy opened the door.  As we stepped inside, the boy saw the gift and we could tell he knew it was for him.  His face brightened…..but then I noticed his mom making her way down the stairs — extremely frail — carrying her IV.  When she saw the gift, tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks.  She gave us each a hug. Every single one of the boys…. and I … had tears in our eyes before all the hugging was done.

The Mom asked the little boy to put the gift under the tree, and we followed him into the empty living room.  No furniture.  No lights.  But, up against the window there was a 4-foot bare Christmas Tree with no presents underneath it.  The boy proudly put the gift there and then came and gave each of us a hug.  After a few minutes, we said goodbye and slowly walked to the car.  As we drove back to the suburbs, there were few words — but the unspoken connection of love through service we now shared — and that we’d continue to share — had taken us, collectively, to a different place.

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself “     

            — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you bummed out about the economy and fearful of the future?  Are you worried about your job, company, portfolio and whether or not you can afford to have a good Christmas this year? 

Want to feel better?

Here is something I’d ask you to do — right now.  As you go to the grocery store to shop for your Thanksgiving feast, go to a store that will give you a turkey free, or really inexpensively if you spend $25 or $50 on groceries.  Go through the line 3 or 4 times and get some extra turkeys.  Take the extra turkeys down to your local food pantry or soup kitchen — or somehow get them to someone who wouldn’t otherwise be having turkey for Thanksgiving this year.

Love is connection.  Connection is flow.  Flow leads to abundance — and fear shuts it all down.

Reach out to help another and you’ll quickly realize that your temporary fear and trepidation is a paper-thin illusion.   

Peace to you.

Rob, Mary and Wes