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Visualizing is Not Enough For me, January was a time to reflect back upon a year in which one natural disaster seemed to follow right on the heels of another. The great Tsunami of December, 2004, marked the beginning of this trend, so I decided to revisit this particular disaster. Back in early 2005, I was particularly impressed with the response of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (affectionately known as Amma or Mother). I remember an email that arrived in my in-box in the summer or fall of 2004, stating the Amma had predicted a massive world-shaking catastrophe for early 2005—I wish I had saved that email. This gentle Indian saint who teaches love and doesn’t specialize in dire predictions was not only accurate, her own ashram was directly affected. Fortunately, Amma was able to save her entire 20,000-member ashram and their pet elephants by directing everyone to climb to the upper levels of a high-rise building on the property. More amazing, however, was Amma and her ashram’s hands-on response to the needs of the victims of the tsunami. Reports from Amma’s website (www.amritapuri.org) were filled with information about her followers’ efforts to help the immediate needs of surrounding villagers, and the future, more comprehensive plans for reconstructing both the material and the spiritual structures of people’s lives. The results are impressive. According to the website, these results include: • To replace homes destroyed by the tsunami, the Ashram is currently building 6,200 houses in India and Sri Lanka. The Ashram is not just building houses, but also roads, wells, community halls and healthcare centers. • The Ashram was the first nongovernmental organization in India to complete relief houses according to government specifications. The Ashram handed over its first eighteen houses on April 13, 2005. • The Ashram has provided free vocational training in nursing assistance, driving, plumbing and electrical work for 2,500 young people from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It has also provided courses in tailoring and started a program to help Kerala villages become self-reliant through self-help groups. • In Tamil Nadu, the Ashram has given away and repaired a total of 550 fishing boats, engines and nets. In Kerala, the Ashram is donating an additional 150 boats, engines and nets. • The Ashram is planting 100,000 cauarina saplings on the beaches of Alappad Panchayat in order to “cut” surging water in case of future tsunamis. Thus far, 50,000 saplings have been planted. • The Ashram is constructing a footbridge over the Kayam-kulam Backwaters, providing a much-needed escape route for villagers to the mainland. The target date for completion is March 1, 2006. • An orphanage is being started in Nagapattinam in order to take care of approximately 350 children who lost their parents in the tsunami. And in Chennai, fifty children orphaned by the tsunami are receiving help. • The Ashram has served more than 7.5 million meals throughout Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Fifteen minutes after the tsunami struck, the Ashram started preparing food for the evacuees, and immediately sent forty trucks of raw rice and food supplies to affected regions. This list may seem long, but it is only a short sample of the many outreach projects that Amma’s ashram has undertaken. The Amma homepage contains a quote that should provide the rest of us with much food for thought: “We hope that this coming year will bring a new dawn—one wherein we will wake to the laughter of children and the chirping of birds, instead of to the crying of children and old people and the sound of gunfire. But there is no point in just hoping. Just by the turning of a number, nothing really changes. For the fulfillment of our hopes, effort should also be there.” —Amma
It is obvious that the effort that Amma is speaking about is not a self-centered one. So much of new age spirituality is centered around focusing on making our own lives better. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is simply not enough. Last year I took the Self-Expression and Leadership Program at Landmark Education in Chicago (www.landmarkeducation.com). One of the stories our instructor John Patterson told us sticks with me. John, a tropical fish buff, spoke about the importance of keeping the water in which the fish swim in balance. Once, the fish in his huge tank started to become lethargic and sickly. It was the water. It looked fine, but it wasn’t. In order to bring the environment back into balance, he had to slowly remove and replace the water over a period of months. The fish began to flourish again. “Just remember, we’re a lot like those fish,” John said. “If the water—or environment—we’re swimming in is unhealthy, we’ll be unhealthy, too. It’s important not only to work on ourselves, but the environment we live in.” There are many ways to clear the waters or fulfill our hopes through effort. Donating, volunteering, or a combination of both come to mind. There are plenty of local organizations in your own neighborhood or city that could use your help. They can be contacted directly or through their web sites. There are also some great umbrella websites that can help you connect the dots and find the organizations and projects that resonate with you. Here are a few of them: Network for Good (networkforgood.org): The Network for Good website enables you to search and donate to more than 1 million charities online. Your donation is safe, secure, and private, and helps support the issues and causes you care about most. In addition, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities including more than 600 in the Chicago area. Informative features of the site include a section called “10 tips on giving wisely” and “7 tips for giving safely online.” Charity America (www.charityamerica.org): Charity America’s mission is to build a powerful nonprofit network by carefully reviewing the qualifications of each nonprofit applicant. They help connect non-profits with corporations and the general public through a system of Causeways—virtual gathering places where individuals and organizations exchange information. There are five Causeways on the site: Information Causeway (nonprofits post their mission statements, special requests, contact information and direct links to their primary web site), Ticket Causeway (individuals or corporations can donate their unusable tickets to a featured CharityAmerica nonprofit and receive a tax deduction and a good feeling), Donation Causeway (individuals and companies give gifts and donate gifts in-kind, from toys to computers to furniture), Volunteer Causeway (member charities post their volunteer service opportunities), and Event Causeway (member nonprofits generate excitement and publicity for upcoming events). Gifts In Kind International (www.giftsinkind.org): Gifts In Kind International partners with businesses and nonprofit organizations to provide quality products and services that improve lives in communities around the world. Gifts In Kind International is a leader in the field of product philanthropy (non-cash product donations). In 2004, for example, Gifts In Kind International and its global affiliates distributed nearly $820 million in quality products to a network of more than 200,000 charitable nonprofits around the world. There are number of other similar sites. The donations page at Network for Good contains a list of sixteen sites including the ones mentioned above and others like DonationDepot, GreaterGood.com, MyCause.com, and Voluntarium. My advice: Make sure your New Year’s resolution extends beyond the body you dwell in to the planet we all exist in. Amazing things can happen when right thought is combined with right action.
Mary Montgomery is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises (“Freelancing with Finesse!”), specializes in public relations, writing projects and web authoring, development and publicity, especially in the non-profit sector. Ms. Montgomery has a Master’s Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) and is working on a Ph.D. with a focus on the new scholarship of Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues. She is also in the process of completing the Morris Pratt Institute Course on Modern Spiritualism. Contact her via email at Monty764@aol.com or at her web site at www.montymedia.com. |
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