It’s another Saturday celebration of those people who make a difference in my world, and the world around me.

Glynn Young is the author of Faith. Fiction. Friends where he blogs everyday on diverse and fascinating topics. One day you’ll be carried along for a 60 mile bike ride, witnessing every passing leaf, feeling every straining muscle and the next, you’ll be wandering the streets of a city from his youth, experiencing the sights and sounds and people of New Orleans. In his words I never fail to come away enlightened, excited and inspired. Glynn is also a huge supporter of other bloggers, constantly sending out tweets linking to their blogs and, every Saturday, presenting a list of interesting blogs to visit. From prose, to poetry, to photographs, Glynn’s Saturday Good Reads offer up an eclectic and rich sampling of offerings to explore. Thanks Glynn for all you do to support your fellow bloggers!

Glynn Young is a hero.

I first met Onalea Gilbertson three years ago when she waltzed into my office at the homeless shelter where I used to work and exclaimed, “I’m going to form a singing group with clients of the shelter and anyone else who wants to come  and join us.” Three years later, The DI Singers are singing strong and this summer, Onalea’s oratorio, “Two Bit Oper-Eh?- Shun?” will be mounted in NYC as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, July 9 – 19. Onalea is tireless in her efforts to create space for Calgarians from all walks of life to share their stories through theatre and song. She’s also a wicked awesome songstress and a wonderful friend!

Onalea Gilbertson is a hero.

As a twelve-year-old, Grade 7 student, Tamara was excited about a Pay It Forward project at school. She had a friend who had experienced homelessness when her parents marriage broke down and the mother and she ran for safety. Tamara’s idea was to make jewellery, sell it, and give all the proceeds to homeless shelters in the city. From her first time participating in the Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre’s, Art From the Heart art show and sale in December of 2007 to February this year, Tamara’s “Heartprints – Kids for a Cause” foundation has raised over $8,400.00 to support efforts to end homelessness in our city. Now a Grade 12 student, Tamara continues to devote time and energy to creating and selling jewellery, knitted scarves, hats and crocheted dish-rags so that she can continue to give back. Tamara is a young woman with amazing heart and beautiful soul reflecting the love and beauty of her mother Bev who has supported Tamara every step of the way.

Tamara is a hero.

I first heard Natalie Merchant‘s Ted Talk performance two years ago, and, every so often, whenever I want to be moved, inspired, or simply to enjoy the moment, I click on the link to her talk to listen to her sing old lullaby’s into life.  And, because this is the month of hearts and romance, I wanted to share something inspiring of the musical kind.  (Plus, I haven’t listened to her for awhile and I really wanted to hear her this morning!)

Natalie Merchant is a hero.

Who are your heroes?  Done any celebrating lately?

Okay. So it’s fess up time. I didn’t really think about holding the thought of my desire to ‘make a difference’ in my consciousness yesterday. Busy doing my thing, the thought of being conscious about making a difference fell away like snow falling to the ground, obscuring the path through the woods.

It was a busy day. A 7:30 meeting, final touches on a proposal to a potential client, a meeting with another potential client and work on a presentation I’m giving tomorrow along with my daily writing schedule, walking Ellie, my golden retriever and suddenly, the day was done. In the ebb and flow of moment’s passing, I forgot to check in with the Universe and see where I could be of service. Fortunately, the Universe is always in flow and accepts my being here as the difference I make more graciously than I do!

I am grateful for having this place to come to every morning to write, and for having my other blog, Recover Your Joy, where I write everyday. By turning up on the page (and screen) with my words of  hope, encouragement and inspiration my intent is always to make a difference, to add light and joy to the lives of those who share their time with me in the virtual and the 3-D world.

And so, I come full circle, back to that place where I embrace ‘the difference’ as a way of living, not just thinking. When I come from a state of being that knows, I am the difference I want to create in the world, I enter each moment in the flow of my words and actions rippling outwards creating gentle waves of Love.

And, one way I am making a difference tomorrow is by taking part in a panel discussion sponsored by This is My City Art Society and the This is My City Festival.

On Common Ground:

Conversations About Our City

 features

 A Matter of Trust

 February 25, 2012 at 1:30p.m.

Calgary Public Library, Central Library

Everyone is welcome. Admission is FREE.

 This conversation will explore the relationship between artists and their subjects and broader issues of privacy, voice and trust concerning at-risk and marginalized communities.

Panelists:

Louise Gallagher – writer, artist and former PR director of the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre

Max Cielsielski – Calgary Rehab and Drop-In Centre client and performing artist with This is My City

Rosemary Griebel – award-winning Calgary poet and librarian

George Webber – internationally renowned Canadian photographer

 Part of the This is My City Festival and presented by The City of Calgary Public Art Program,

On Common Ground is a series of conversations among artists, community builders, cultural thinkers, and you. Come explore the shifting ideas of home, the ethics of working with each other, and urban renewal as it relates to our sense of history, community and shared culture. Four conversations are taking place – January 28, February 25, March 31 and April 28, 2012.

 This is My City (TMC) Festival 2012 is a multi-disciplinary arts festival, linking together TMC’s core work with programs produced by other organizations, to bring attention to homelessness, the use of urban space and the issue of urban redevelopment.

For more information, visit www.thisismycitycalgary.ca.

Namaste.

May your ripple be a gentle flow of healing waters creating joy and love in your world today.

It was a quiet day of small significances that rippled out gently into the world around me. A card to a friend who is going through a tough time, an email to another who is struggling, sharing some of the wonder I found on the Internet — Thank you Rachael S. for sharing Louie Schwartzberg’s TEDxSF’s video – Gratitude. A walk with my youngest daughter and Ellie, time spent sitting on the couch, chatting, sharing, laughing. Filling the bird-feeder and spending time, sitting at my desk overlooking the backyard, watching them twitter and flitter around the feeder — they make me smile, they make my heart feel warm. Stopping beside two people in the lane-way who were pulling a wheeled grocery carrier that they were filling with bottles and telling them I had a bag of bottles in my garage waiting to be put out for recycling. Their smiles when they came to the garage and found the bottles and Liseanne running into the house to check for more empties and then running down the lane to give them to them.

Savouring small moments, I count my blessings and lose myself in the wonder of the beauty and joy and love in my world today.

Sometimes, the best difference we can make is to take time to savour the moment, to reflect on our blessings and give thanks for all that is. To appreciate both what we deem ‘bad’ and good and know and to acknowledge, life is a gift we’ve been given to live in Love. Each moment is an exquisite treasure, ours to fill with the wonder we see when we open our minds and hearts in gratitude for what we have, what we’ve been given, what we have experienced and what we can do when we let go of fear and surrender and fall in Love.

May your day be filled with exquisite moments that touch your heart with the wonder and beauty of the difference you make in a world of Love.

Namaste.

Someone once wrote that the two most important days in your life are, “The day you are born and the day you learn why.”

Yesterday, I sat in a room of 70+ people delving into the wonder of their ‘why’.

Yesterday, I watched miracles unfold as individuals claimed their Purpose and picked up the challenge of living it consciously as they embraced the truth that, who they are and what they do in the world makes a difference. Because, in that truth of their significance is a very simple fact, they were already living their purpose. It was written on their hearts, seen in acts of service, in gestures of kindness, in their giving back, giving of themselves in the world around them.  They just hadn’t put it into words they could hold onto. Words that celebrate what they do in the world to make a difference, just by being themselves.

Yesterday, I got to make a difference simply by being present, by turning up and being part of the act of wings unfolding as spirits soared and hearts broke open in love with the wonder of flying free of the disbelief, their life had no purpose. Every life has a purpose and when we discover it, when we embrace it and live it for all we’re worth, there’s no stopping how much difference we can make in the world, every moment of every day.

Yesterday, in the Purpose seminar at Choices I got to be part of creating a different kind of world. A world where people live free of the fear they will never be enough as they stepped lovingly into that space where they knew, I give enough. I do enough. I am enough.  I am here for a purpose. I am here to live Love’s purpose of being me.

Choices has been a blessing in my life since April 2006 when I first went through the seminar. It has helped me heal and strengthen and nurture my relationships, my heart and my belief in me. It has given me simple tools to live my best life yet, profound learning on who I am, and more than anything else, it has shown me the true power and depth and beauty of Love.

Love is the biggest difference I can make in the world. Being it. Sharing it. Holding onto it. In Love, all things are possible. In Love, everything is different.

And yesterday, I got to make a difference just by turning up and listening to the whispering of Love calling hearts to fly free.

I am blessed.

Namaste.

There are days when I wonder — seriously Louise. Couldn’t you have just decided to write this blog for a month? What’s with the year-long public commitment?

Those are the days I have to dig deep to stay conscious, to stay connected, to stay open to the unexpected appearance of grace unfolding in full bloom in my life.

Yesterday, I received an email from a woman whom I knew when working at the shelter. Then I received a comment here from a man I’d known while working there too. In  their words my heart was touched by the grace of gratitude and humility and the capacity for the human spirit to soar free of what would keep it tethered to the bonds of pain and shame. I was touched by their beauty and their willingness to grow beyond the trauma of the label ‘homeless’ into the fullness of their human condition. (Thank you SA and NS).

It is the gift of reciprocity.

Everyday I experience life through my human condition in all its human imperfections.  And everyday I strive to connect to perfection. And in my ego’s drive to ‘be perfect’ I forget I am, perfectly perfect in all human imperfections — in all my beauty and the beast connotations, in all my id and ego gyrations, in all my yin and yang exhortations to be more, be better, be perfect.

Fact is, we are all perfect just the way we are. Loving our perfection, just the way we are, gives us the grace of loving our imperfections, just the way they are too.

And sometimes, we need others to help us see the difference between the striving to be perfect versus the acceptance of loving our human condition, jus the way we are. Sometimes, we need someone to remind us that our difference counts most when we touch each other, heart to heart.

Mother Teresa once said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

The difference I want to make, today and everyday, is to be like that drop in the ocean. To be connected in this sea of life through the Love that flows all around. To be the eyes that see what is missing. The words that touch hearts and open minds. The arms that embrace weary souls in tender loving care. The hands that hold out hope when all is deemed lost. The heart that breaks open in Love to love myself, just the way I am, just the way you are, just the way we all are.

Yesterday, I received gifts from those whose lives I’ve touched and who touched mine. In their words I let myself receive their gift of gratitude and in that circle of giving, my thankfulness ripples outward.

In giving we receive. In giving, we are connected. And in our connection we are all perfectly human in all our imperfections shining in Love.

This morning, I am grateful for making this blog a year-long process. In its unfolding my gratitude strengthens and my understanding deepens as I fall in love with who I am in this world when I let go of  ‘being perfect’  in exchange for joyfully living up our shared experience of  ‘being human’ in the rapture of now.

Namaste.