A lucky Frenchman has decided to dedicate most of his record-breaking $217 million lottery jackpot to a nature foundation he created, he told Le Parisien in an exclusive interview published Wednesday. The winner, nicknamed “Guy” by French lottery group Françaises des Jeux (FDJ), won the sum in December 2020. At the time, the jackpot was…
Tag: sharing
Amid war and disease, World Happiness Report shows bright spot
In this troubled time of war and pandemic, the World Happiness Report 2022 shows a bright light in dark times. According to the team of international researchers, including McGill University Professor Christopher Barrington-Leigh, the pandemic brought not only pain and suffering but also an increase in social support and benevolence. “COVID-19 is the biggest health crisis we’ve…
Gleaning: the ancient right that is making a comeback in Cornwall
An idea dating to biblical times that could be replicated elsewhere! The Cornwall Gleaning network was started in early 2020 after its founder, Holly Whitelaw watched a Simon Reeve documentary about Cornwall, its hidden poverty and challenges being faced by its inhabitants.After some shocking conversations with desperate individuals on the front line of the food…
Smile!
A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is too poor that he cannot give it…
Love is the key to our evolution
by Luc Bodin Many are wondering about their life path which is a good question. It is not always easy to answer them. However, one thing is common to all missions, it is to experience love, to live love, to radiate love during this existence. If you don’t know which direction to take in life, start by developing love … love in all…
This City Makes Sure No One Goes Hungry—Even During COVID
Nestled on a wide plateau surrounded by the Espinhaço Mountains in southeastern Brazil is the city of Belo Horizonte, roughly 275 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The city of 2.5 million is an industrial and technological hub, which had historically led to stark socioeconomic divisions, including high rates of poverty. But while other similarly…
The Irish are sending relief to Native Americans –
– inspired by a donation from a tribe during the Great Famine Excerpts from an article by By Harmeet Kaur, CNN May 6 2020 People in Ireland inspired by an act of generosity committed more than 170 years ago are paying it forward. In 1847, the Choctaw people collected $170 to send to people in Ireland…
The magic of appreciation
A few years ago, I discovered with wonder a new form of magic: expressing appreciation to others for something they had done. And modern life offers us a thousand different opportunities to manifest that magic. A small example: I live in a community that makes a special effort to decorate public places. Multicolored flowers are…
‘Literally A Miracle’: Rival Gangs in South Africa Call Truce To Help People During Pandemic
Around the globe, as uncertainty still looms over us, people are continuing to step up their compassion — in unprecedented ways. This story is one of many in the Karunavirus.org newsletter of April 23 (Karuna is Sanskrit for Compassion) Warring gangs in South Africa are working together in an unprecedented truce to deliver much-needed food…
Excerpts from Footprints on the Path by Eileen Caddy
To love one another you must try to understand one another, and to understand you have to be able to communicate. Whether that communications is done in words or in silent action matters not as long as it is done in love, your heart is open and the love flows freely. Where there is love…
Am I a world citizen?
We live in an infinitely benevolent, ever loving, universe …. but a very, very strange humanly (dis)organized world! After all, a world where a tiny virus weighing a microgram can upset the world economy in a few weeks is either inhabited by a very, very clever virus…or then is really inhabited by an extremely strange group of people. So…
A spiritual purpose behind everything that happens
Chicago Sun-Times Editor’s note: A supposed “open letter from Bill Gates,” the tech billionaire and philanthropist, has been bouncing all over the internet since at least March 23. The letter — titled “What is the Corona/Covid-19 virus really teaching us?” — is a fake. Gates did not write it. But there’s a reason it has…
The Gift of Sufficiency
A new article from Center for Action and Contemplation calls and expands upon Lynne Twists’ teachings in the mindset of sufficiency. “When we live in the context of sufficiency, we find a natural freedom and integrity. We engage in life from a sense of our own wholeness rather than a desperate longing to be complete.…
Landfill Harmonic: Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra
A music teacher helps children living by a Paraguay landfill site to reach stardom with instruments made from rubbish. “To have nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing,” says Favio Chavez. On the edges of the Cateura landfill near Paraguay’s capital, he teaches a group of children to play violins, cellos, saxophones, flutes and…
The joy of service
For one who has discovered the deep, nourishing satisfaction of life lived in a spirit of service, finding opportunities of service becomes one of the joys of life. And there are so, so many such opportunities. For those who may be wondering what kind of service they may render because they have not yet made…
A New Way to Worship
by guest Rabbi Rami Shapiro – July 07, 2019 Comment: I love what Rabbi Shapiro writes – it is a major step forward from the rigidified religious practices of the past (and for quite a few, still the present.) However, after having been most of my life as a member of traditional churches, it is my belief…
Listening – the art of putting one’s self on the backburner
To listen is possibly the most beautiful gift we can offer anyone. In a way it is to tell that person: “You are important to me, you are interesting, I am glad you are here. I am here for you; I am touched by who you are and what you are saying.” To listen is…
Joy for the Planet
“The Infinite is the source of joy!” (Chandogya Upanishad 7.23) There is a mighty rushing river of deep Joy at the center of all life. Oh yes, there is also a roller-coaster ride of pleasure and pain at the surface of human experience. Yet transcending this is a Joy that is the very effervescence of…
How a nightmare childhood inspired one-of-a-kind gifts
“I bless children in foster care, that the challenges of their past weigh not unduly on their future. I bless the hosting families that they may welcome their foster child with gentleness, deep compassion and caring and an understanding of their special needs.” Pierre Pradervand, from https://pierrepradervand.com/365-blessings-to-heal-myself-and-the-world/ On any given day, there are nearly 437,500…
A Candle is talking to you
You have lighted me, and you are looking at me, dreaming. Perhaps you are happy to have me. In any case, I am happy to be lit. If I don’t burn, I shall be like the others, left in a box where I have no purpose. My reason for being is fulfilled only when I…
We think we know so much …
We know how to reach the stars, but we don’t know how to respect the heavens and even less so the immensity of the cosmos. We know how to talk about love, but we have such difficulty loving while respecting the other and one’s self. We know how to bake bread, but we have trouble…
Install LOVE on the HUMAN Computer
Program your spiritual life for a new year! Customer: I really need some help. After much consideration, I’ve decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me through the process? Tech Support: Yes, I can help you. Are you ready to proceed? Customer: Well, I’m not very technical, but I think I’m ready to install it…
Welcome the ‘gift economy’
What is the gift economy? In a gift economy, goods and services are given without any strings attached; it is an economic system where it is the circulation of the gifts within the community that leads to increase; in this context, hoarding actually decreases wealth. At its core, gift-economy is a shift from consumption to…
‘Gratitude’ and ‘Love’ from ‘Opening Doors Within’ – Eileen Caddy
(1917-2006, Co-founder of the Findhorn Community) Gratitude Be not concerned if your beginnings into this spiritual life are small. All good things have small beginnings. The mighty oak starts from a tiny acorn. From a tiny seed the most wonderful plants and flowers spring forth. From a tiny seed of love many lives can be…
A Preschool inside a Nursing Home? A Win-Win for All!
“Compassion… the capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there never can really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.” ~ Frederick Buechner Who would have ever thought that pairing preschoolers with elderly nursing home…
