How does it move through you?

Each time I open my mailbox or Facebook, I am inundated with requests for help. How do you choose which initiative to give to? At what point do you stop?

These are questions I have been living with since the typhoon hit. I give by feel. If there is a person I know and trust at the other end of the initiative, I will give there. If it is an initiative that causes a sudden swelling of my heart, I give there. But now I have chosen just one or two that I would like to see through, also because I want to focus. No one can save the world alone and we have to trust that others are doing their share where they are needed.

I think I may have overdone it this time, judging from the thudding in my heart each time I realize I've left this or that bill unpaid, but I simply have to trust that by giving towards the improvement and healing of our country, I have made a sound and wise investment.

There was a significant amount of money I had to let go of recently because it was claimed by someone else. I had thought it was meant for me, but with all the inhuman behavior around it, I knew it would be folly to insist on taking it. To me, it is about energy and intention. It isn't just money.

As I age, I am beginning to realize the true nature of money. It is energy. It is supposed to flow. This doesn't mean one behaves irresponsibly and gives everything away, but I'm coming to the understanding that it is better used, out there, moving, than sitting in the bank doing nothing. There are many ways for your money to move as it should and I find that when you give, you realize you have more room to give where you thought you didn't before. Spaces open up when you are awake and conscious about the true value of money and what it is supposed to do in the world.

Ondoy has opened up spaces in our hearts and homes that were not there before. I've cleaned out my closet three times, and each time I thought I had given to the max. My children have given away clothes they still wear because they know they have more than what they need.

The challenge today is to begin to live even more simply and to make sure that whatever money we have moves through the world as well. When you put your money in initiatives that matter in the world, you are making an investment that is wide, deep and from the heart. No bank can give you that.

Happy Days

I've been listening to a lot of music lately, something I don't normally do because I'm a big fan of quiet, but since Ondoy....well...the world has changed. A part of me puts one foot in front of the other each day, but a big one reaches towards the past, looking for memories of a simpler world. The world of Burt Bacharach.

I just love him.