So Much Generosity, Community and Gratitude!

This post is dedicated to my friends, who have so generously helped me and inspired me.

What a week it has been! I have been able to connect with amazing and inspiring people and have been able to participate in giving and receiving. This stuff is catchy!

It all started this way, with a woman I hardly know and the generosity of women I do know. I sent this message out to my local Holistic Moms Network chapter and a couple of friends not in the chapter: 

Hi all. I have a really neat story and request for help.

I met Valerie, an employee at Barnes and Noble who suffers from Hypothyroid and it has been really hard on her. I see her every few months and sometimes she is really struggling with it. She started chatting with me at that first visit because I was returning a book that my brother bought for me. She thought it was a "good book" until I explained to her why it wasn't. She asked a lot of questions, discussed her hypothyroidism and how western medicine hasn’t helped, and eventually I recommended that she go see my Oriental medicine doc.

Then I spoke to my doc and he said that Hypothyroid was almost always easy to treat and he would like to help her. So back I went to Valerie to relay what he told me. Problem is that she doesn't have the financial resources to cover the cost of the first appt. or a car to get there.

Fast forward about 7 months to today when Colson and I were at the library. We are checking out and I hear a woman ask for Nourishing Traditions, which of course perks my ears up. Eventually I realize it is Valerie and she is finally ready to get busy with the food but she still can't get to my doc's due to financial constraints and because she has no car. I offered to drive her, which thrilled her, and she says she will be in touch. I know that the money is still a problem for her.

All that to say that I am going to purchase part of her visit, but I can't do so until 2012 due to financial constraints.

If you would like to join me in helping Valerie get to my doc's, change her life so that she can finally actually feel good, and do so at very little cost, please do! $5 or less will get her on her way because it will get her there sooner. If we can make this a community effort, it will not be a financial inconvenience to any of us who are able to contribute and it will drastically change a very nice person's life.

If you can help and are interested in helping, please email me off-line. 

Thank you so much for reading this message!

Laura

Those women sure stepped up. We have raised the money for Valerie’s first appointment and part of her lab costs. I will go to Barnes and Noble this weekend with this surprise, which I hope isn’t too overwhelming for her, and she will be at my Oriental medicine doc’s office before Christmas!

This effort quickly got me to thinking that here we are helping a stranger when some of our Holistic Moms members may need help too. So, I put out this message: 

Thank you to those who have contributed to helping Valerie, about whom I posted yesterday. We are making progress! I don't even really know her, just see her every few months, struggling sometimes and not others. She is really trying to heal but doesn't have the resources, and with your help we will get her what she needs. Because you are contributing, the specialness of the effort is magnified and I think it helps alleviate any sense of obligation she may feel because there is not just one person for her to focus her appreciation on. 

Now on to us. I know that my family has been severely stretched economically to the point where donating even to a cause like Valerie's, requiring very little money, has been a serious hardship. I wonder how many in our chapter find themselves in this situation and we aren't helping them?

With this in mind, I am pondering setting up some sort of alternative health care (or allopathic care when needed) fund to help our sister members who truly can't get what they need no matter how hard they try. I am not talking about helping with items that a person may need to delay purchasing until they catch up a little - like the Vitamin D supplement that my family has not been able to purchase for two weeks but we can purchase today (yay!).

I am talking about members who can't get a treatment or supplement they need regardless of how much time passes because they can't allocate funds to these areas regardless of how much time passes.
If we have members in this type of financially difficult situation, please email me off line and let me know that this type of effort would help you.
If there is a need, maybe those interested in helping could contribute $5 a month (maybe a little more depending on how many participate and how strong the need is). If we end up with $300 (or another amount if anyone has another recommendation) and no one needing anything, then we just stop contributing until the money is put to use.

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone!

Laura

Did the Holistic Moms and Dads have thoughts? Heck yeh, they did! Pledges have come in, needs have been identified, ideas have been floated and a committee of three is being formed to manage and disburse the money, and we will be running with this before Christmas. I will have guidelines drafted by the end of this weekend.

In addition to all of that and based on the chatter of two members, a database of talents/knowledge is being developed so that we know what non-monetary resources we can offer. 

Regarding our members, I have been part of this chapter since its founding 5 ½ years ago. In some ways its sense of community has waned over time, with many of the old timers still close and the new folks kind of quiet. They are starting to show themselves now, offering to help out. Hopefully I will meet some of them at our December meeting. It feels like our community is strengthening and gaining new purpose.

Now for one more gift. My friend Noelia, who regularly practices generosity and who helped me get to the Weston Price conference last year (I have blogged about it extensively), gave me a great surprise last night, which happened prior to the above efforts and again highlights the importance of community.

Noelia coordinates an organic, North Carolina local pecan order every year. This year I volunteered to pick up the pecans (a couple hours round trip) but my car broke down. Economically, the timing was most unfortunate due to a short layoff (with no more foreseeable layoffs even in the distant future – Yay!) and some other financial constraints. Not only could I not pick up the pecans, I had to withdraw my order. My family seriously has very little attachment to much of anything thanks to all of these layoffs. We are just grateful to eat good food and have a place to live. 

Now for the really fun part! 

Noelia told the Holistic Moms who placed orders what happened, and last night she told me that as a surprise the farmer and some of the members have gifted us pecans…so now we are awash in pecans! Talk about an unexpected and generous surprise!

I am in awe of my community (Holistic Mom friends and others). They have helped my family during the four (yes four!) layoffs over four years, without asking us what we need. They have taught me so much and I am doing my best to keep paying it forward. My gratitude is overflowing and it feels great.