WOW is the word!

Over 25,000+ hours now logged for the Moving Difference project!

Yup! It is true and then some. 25,000+ hours and we are still counting the hours….

10 weeks into summer and 25,000+ hours of getting out there, moving and making a difference in our communities with our friends and family.

WOW is the word! AMAZING is an understatement!

Now there are still 3.5 weeks of summer left and about 10k in unread emails to read but all in all I think we made an impact. A small impact towards humanity and community.

And two weekends from now is the Silly Hat Big Clean (September 8) happening in parks across the nation. And then September 21, we all watch that sunset set, together, no matter where we are in the world. It will be time to reflect on a great summer of Moving Difference.

I am actually crying here at my desk. I never imagined 25,000+ hours. Not from a little taco napkin idea certainly…..

These are tears of joy, sorrow and sweat. (Using a different napkin to wipe my eyes!)

I am so thankful, so grateful and so humbled by the people doing this Moving Difference project. This is beyond amazing…

To me, you are beautiful people. To me, you are wonderful. To me, you are the world.

I may never meet every one of you that has done an hour for the Moving Difference project this summer, but I thank you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

It is people like you, quiet and steadily doing good, that makes this world a better place.

I can’t thank you enough.

Thanks for everything, and all your hard work and efforts on the Moving Difference project. I look forward to the last 3.5 weeks of summer, knowing that it is you and your family and friends that did this project – you are the Moving Difference!!!

Thank you!!!

Plugging my life away AND some grand news!!

Remember the old Glade ad? That little jingle to “Plug it in! Plug it in!”

(click here if you want a trip down retro lane!)

Plug it in! Plug it in! That has been my life since starting Moving Difference in June.

I am always searching for an outlet, at coffee shops, at restaurants, at the Laundromat, and I even admit to charging at a doctor office….I even have woken up in the middle of the night to check and see if my item is plugged in… I haven’t had dreams about it….that I remember yet…

It is mostly for my phone – that new Motorola that gives me the red light warning before switching to flashing red light in a matter of moments….and then the silence.

Everything gone, my entire world reduces to a black pit screen oddly in the shape of an electronic Hot Pocket with the weight of stapler and just as useless as it can be….

Then there is the laptop – 2 hours on battery and then it decides to start to punish me by taking away files or programs. Slowly at first, as it only wants power…. And then comes the crash and bang and the freeze, the demands of “plug me in or else” in secret computer talk….

It is a power struggle. This is a funny video about that type of struggle – here.

This is hard to admit but secretly I think deep down I like it when my phone and laptop don’t have the energy to have me play with them. Secretly I have been reading books, actually paper and ink in bounded form. And secretly with my phone and laptop plugged in, I can step away to enjoy the little things like trees, sky and even a few stars – okay so basically outside…And I love it!!

And now for the grand news!!

There is a big announcement coming on Monday!! It is going to blow you away!!

Doing the right thing

            Over the course of the Moving Difference project, I have talked with lots of people from all walks of life. I have noticed that in the fast pace society that is 2012, sometimes doing the right thing gets lost in the hustle and bustle of making what we think is a living or a life for ourselves. We might all have good intentions, but the difference between good intentions and doing the right thing is a murky puss within each of us.

            I am talking about doing the right thing on big and little decisions in every day life. You know, walking against the light when it is only a minute more to wait for the signal to change, throwing trash out of the window when driving instead of doing it at the gas station and the list goes on and on. It is the small things that lead to bigger things like driving drunk and cheating on taxes.

            Personally, I admit that I am not perfect in any stretch of the imagination. And please don’t think that I am either. I have made mistakes, small and big and continue to do so on a regular basis. But I do try and do the right thing each and every moment. The road to hell is often paved with good intentions and doing the right thing is easier to say than do.

            My belief is that doing the right thing cost nothing. And with that belief also lays a mistake I found out recently. See you can have all the good intentions in the world and you can do the right thing but it might cost you.

             Obliviously this cost isn’t something happens each and every time but it does happen. In example, if you report a colleague to the cops for drunk driving after multiple attempts of taking away the keys and even getting this person a cab, well, then you are doing the right thing. You are thinking beyond the simple fact of this person just wants to drive home and you know that there is a danger to the person and other people if this person does it.

            What is the possible cost of doing the right thing? Well, for starters, isolation. Yup, if doing the right thing isn’t popular, you are going to be in the ice house for a while. Next, is the ugly part, people telling you that they only did it “once” or it isn’t a big deal or you don’t understand everything or the favorite among most “Everybody is doing it.” Nice huh? If it sounds like high school drama, then you must be doing something right. The next stage of justification and fake apology with no corrective measures, this really explains itself. And the last piece is usually anger at the person that actually did the right thing.

            If above sounds all too familiar to you, well, that means you did the right thing. These stages are general in terms but they do apply to most of the “cost” of doing the right thing situations.

            Even with a cost, doing the right thing isn’t something that I am willing to give up on. Perhaps it is a character flaw in me but I will always believe that doing the right thing will always prevail. My grand attempts to make the world a better place start with me doing the right things as well. And correcting my mistakes too. Which means starting now, no more crossing against the traffic lights, I am waiting for the light period.

            Yes, I realize it is a small thing, yet it is the right thing to do, remember I already told you that I am not perfect, it is also the law. There are a few other “doing the right things” in my world that I will be taking care of over the next few weeks, stuff that needs to be fixed and changed for the better and because it is the right thing to do. I might not be popular afterwards but hey, I already know the cost of doing the right thing.

            So if you find yourself thinking about doing the right thing today. Remember that it starts with you and goes forward. You are the changer, you are the difference, you are the example.

              I close with a thought from a dear friend who told me this long ago:  

                        “You already know what you have to do, go do it.”

A Different View

Today has been a day, you know, one of those days that aren’t bad but not good either. It is average, the sky is out, there is some peace in the world and things aren’t getting done like they should or at least like you wanted them to.

By all counts, we should be happy to be alive. Happy to be able to complain about the little things like a rental car company doubling billing or the maintenance guy that hasn’t shown up for four days straight or even that rush hour traffic that we both know that we might sit in later.

Ironically enough, a friend of mine mentioned last week that she was strengthening her “gratitude” muscle. It was an interesting thought to me. Something I have been pondering in the back on my mind for a few days.  

A muscle… not a bone, not skin, and not the little gray matter in my head but a muscle.

Interesting enough she also mentioned that while she was doing this strengthening, she was doing what she set out to do with a grateful heart but NOT putting herself in the middle of any drama, be it office or home or anywhere.

Okay, that was an even bigger thought for me to get my head around. Yet there is something really wonderful about it. Stepping back and being grateful, doing what you set out to do and avoid the vortex of negative toxic drama…

This week has been part one of the experiment: Taking my gratitude muscle out for the spin.

   I am a beginner here so I prepare myself for the worst. I have those cute swimming water wings on, of course training wheels along with a helmet and about six layers of padding on and I started small.

   I thanked a lady who held the door open for me. Just a smile, eye contact and thank you. Nothing. Bummers.

  So I kept going on, to what I thought was other failures in exercising my gratitude muscle. Nobody acknowledged saying thank you, in fact making eye contact and a smile was the worst idea ever I thought. It opened the door for whoever to tell you about whatever negative or ugly thing that was happening to them. Late on the rent, bad knee, paycheck missing, business matters in trouble, questions about doing this or that, non-profits issues and the list goes on and on. It opened drama to my doorstep. It also delayed me in what I was setting out to do… just being grateful. I was very discouraged and in fact about to scrap this whole experiment…

    Then about an hour ago, bang!

            I called someone that I worked with and I thanked them for being the mentor and a reference for me. We had worked together on a foundation for years and this really was me, just calling to express my thankfulness. Working that gratitude muscle.

            There was a laugh at the other end of the phone after I said thank you. One of those deep belly laughs like Santa at the Mall. It caught me totally off guard and rather upset me. I inquired about the laugh at thank you and he replied “Jeny, I know you are thankful, you don’t have to say thank you but it is nice to hear and be appreciated.”

            Of course, the conversation led to why I was saying thank you, the gratitude muscle and various other things that came out of this experiment. Most was met with more laughs and chuckles at my expense. It wasn’t until it was said Hey maybe your gratitude muscle is fine but you need to work on your avoiding drama muscle and keep doing what you are doing muscle in conjunction with your gratitude muscle. Then it clicked.

            Being grateful, saying thank you and living a grateful life is all good. And that is gratitude muscle. Now the second part is the “keep doing what you are doing” muscle. Admittedly that is tough as life can interrupt and really mess-up the schedule but again it takes that muscle to keep it on track. And finally the third part, “avoiding drama” muscle, care and concern are good things, however when it effects the other two muscles, well, maybe it is time to re-evaluate. I am still a beginner here and I am still learning how to use all three muscles at the same time…

            So I am curious what you think.

            How is your “gratitude” muscle? And those other muscles?

Be BOLD

This has been a great weekend!

Plenty of things achieved and plenty of people to share a laugh with.

It is also great because of one thing – Moving Difference.

Moving Difference has achieved over 14,000 hours of making a moving difference world-wide now and we are still counting the hours from emails of last week.

That is pretty good considering this was a dream on a taco napkin!!

So stay tune for the weeks ahead as we slide into the end of summer with Silly Hat Big Clean on September 8– and towards that once-in-lifetime sunset on September 21, 2012!! It is going to be amazing end to an awesome summer….

Oh, yeah – This week ahead – be BOLD! be A MOVING DIFFERENCE!!

“A strong foe is better than a weak friend.”

You have probably noticed, there hasn’t been a blog post in roughly 10 days.

Don’t worry! I still love yas but some stuff happened and well, it had to be dealt with.

Basically, personal computers got attacked by malware, a hack or hackers and many other things in cyber world that are still being sorted out. Cops involved, lawyers involved, computer experts involved, items documented and the list goes on. It has been an expensive lesson as it has cost more than money but time and friendships as well as a precious thing called peace of mind.

What you think in life is reasonably safe can actually be the worst thing in the world for you. For me, it is computers. They are a big part of my life. My computers have been exposed in such a way that even experts are trying to figure out how and why. There are not many answers to my questions that satisfy. And the worst part is I am not the only one in the world this happens too – several of my friends have and even a reporter (click here) endured the same thing in various levels. The cyber world can be a cruel mistress and a helpful aide in the same moment.

Well, I can tell you what I have done this far, I have screamed, cursed, yelled, reported, followed-up, attempted to prevent it from happening again and repeat the above almost hourly on some days. There was even a day that I swore to only handwrite letters but that gave way when I couldn’t find a pen!!

The question that remains is what do I from here?

It is a tough question as I sit in front of a computer with my Groucho glasses on my head.

My mind doesn’t like the answer but my heart and soul insists. It isn’t easy but it is the right thing to do. Sometimes doing the right thing hurts more. Typing the words below on a computer seems ironic at this point but life goes on.

Answer: Life is already too short, so I am doing what I have to do, and also prevent it from happening again, learn the lessons from it and then forgive (not forget) and move on to other things in life – which means catching up on Moving Difference stuff, doing other projects, regular work job, reading a book, unplug from the cyber world more often and living life and maybe even a vacation without electronics. Oh, and do random computer sweeps a lot more.

So now is the action part of that answer, the “moving on”…

 how’s your Moving Difference summer going?

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
― Oscar Wilde

Going Beyond

In the course of life, there are moments were we as humans go beyond our limits, push further, laugh deeper and smile greater than any other moment in our lives. In those moments before, we are struggling to achieve, on a quest or even grasping at the toughest thing in our lives.

We appreciate the moment that got us there.

I hope that you can appreciate what Moving Difference has done in this short time and then dig deep and do it again.

I know that I am – I have decided to double my hours at this point. I am going for 24 hours by the end of summer in Moving Difference. Only counting one hour for each project, 24 different Moving Difference opportunities to serve.

It is a personal challenge, but as always you are welcomed to join in. Let me know – as this is Extreme Moving Difference!!

See you out there.

Jeny

How do you say Moving Difference hit over 10,000 hours?

When I saw the spreadsheet of hours reported thus far, I stared at the screen, the numbers had been triple-checked to the emails.  Here we are, together, five weeks and two days into a small project, Moving Difference and it hit over 10,000 hours of getting out, moving and making a difference.

There are over 5,000 people now involved in the Moving Difference project.

Official number of hours is 10,165 as now.

Amazing is an understatement.

And we still have 8 weeks of the summer left.

I don’t think that there is any better time than right now, to say thank you.

The world is a wonderful place with people like you in it, I do thank you.

I am still staring at the screen, I have been for hours.

This is one awesome summer that keeps going– and it will be one memorable sunset on September 21, 2012.

Again, I must say thank you.

Let my life speak for itself.

          Sometimes in my life, I take on the world and lose. Sometimes in my life, I take on the world and win, all of the rest of the time are a draw.

            But it is my life and I live it to the fullest, all throttle and on the fringes just about everyday. There are a lot of things that many people don’t know about me, and that is fine with me. You don’t need to know me to know that I will gladly help you if I can, you just need to know that you can get help when you need it. I live my life as close to no regrets, some mercy, full justice and simple compassion as I can get.

            I tell you this because none of us know the future. Card readers, horoscopes even trick knees can only paint what might happen to us each in the future. The future actually lies in us and what we do in our lives to that last moment can speak volumes about our lives themselves.

            That is what I want to talk to you about – that last moment. The moment where death happens, where a shell of a body and a soul separate, where you go wherever you are to go and you are gone.

            Death- a subject that something happy like the Moving Difference project probably shouldn’t talk about. Wrong! Death, like time, tide and taxes happen. It happens to each of us at some point, and it will happen, you and I can’t change that fact.

            So why bring death up? Because in my life, I have known a great number of people that always put off what they should have taken care of today and I still know a few. I know people that are afraid of death, even I am. I know that the only way sometimes with something like death is to meet it head on and deal with it.

            Here is the thing: This is a very personal side of me that I am going to share with you. It isn’t easy but if it helps one person out, then it was worth it.

            I know that death will happen to me, I don’t know the when and where and I am not certainly encouraging it to come pay me a visit. But I have sat down and I thought about organ donation, about donating my body and about what to do with my remains.

            Now stop freaking out – this is important. This is being a moving difference way after I am gone. Taking the hour to think about this, to write down wishes and to have the forethought to face death with a positive is courageous. It is time to be bold.

            For me personally, I have decided that if my organs can be used to help someone else, then please take them. I don’t need them at that point and if they help someone else, great! After that, please ship my body to medical students to learn on. Have those future brains of tomorrow poke, test and learn. I can only hope that they find the solutions to the diseases of the world. And after that, cremated me. There is no reason for my whole body to be put in a box and put in the earth. Ashes are just fine. In fact, I am going to have my ashes put in a man-made concrete reef, and then that reef goes out to one of the eroding coast lines to help stop the wave erosion. The fishes and other aquatic life forms get to feed and live in that reef as it protects the shoreline.

            For me, there is no reason to be a named slab in a garden of stone. I don’t want people to visit me and put more dead things on my grave after I am gone. It would be a waste, because I am not there. At that point, I have lived my life, and you knew me or you didn’t, either way I probably will not be interested in what kind of flowers you bring. See when I am gone, I am gone, I either did my life right or not. The simple fact remains there are no reasons for me not to have my body go forward to help others – humans or animals or the world.

          Let’s face it; no one wants to talk about death. Death of themselves, or a loved one or any one, it is a scary subject. It is a hard subject no matter your beliefs, but it is a subject that should be thought about and discussed. I hope you have the courage to think about it, to discuss it and write down your decisions in a timely fashion.

            My decisions are written down and written above. They are extremely personal to me. They are extremely hard to make public too. I share these decisions with you not to make you fearful. I share so that you will stop and think about it. See, I don’t want to leave this life that I have, I love my life, I love many things in it but in that same moment, I know that I will face death someday, so I am going to deal with it and move on. I know that by me taking the time and making these decisions, by thinking about that unpleasant thought of death, I am staying true to myself, to my entire life’s work and even into the future. I am taking away the unknown, and making it a known. I don’t know when that last moment is coming – asleep on the couch; in a hospital; skydiving or whenever. I might be scared out of my mind or laughing, I don’t know. Yet when that last moment of my life happens, I am going to go into it knowing that I have done everything that I could to let my life speak for itself. I am going to go on giving and be a difference even after my death. There is strength and comfort in knowing that death doesn’t have any power over me. Bottom line is even death isn’t going to stop me from doing what I already do every day –  be a Moving Difference.

Be bold, my friends, live life to the fullest every day.

A guest Blogger – Amor!

This week at Moving Difference has been quite busy. A number of things are happening and it is all good. We got so busy in fact that we decide that it is time for a guest blogger.

So here is Amor – and his thoughts on Moving Difference. Please enjoy!

Question:  If you make a Moving Difference and there’s nobody around, did you make a difference?

Answer:

This weekend, I had two hours of Moving Difference to do.  I missed my hour last week and had to make one up.  Missing an hour is ok – life sometimes intrudes and you adjust and move on, making that difference.  The important thing is to remember that there’s 12 hours to be done over this time and it’s a matter of accomplishing them.

What made this time different for me was that I was alone.

With volunteering, you’re often with large groups of people. 20-30 isn’t unusual for school supply drives or house painting.  You deal with individual personalities, problems, cliques – the usual.  You push through that and you accomplish the goals of the project.

But when you’re alone, the burden is on you and nobody else.  When it boils down to it, accomplishing that single hour rests on your shoulders.

With that weight on my shoulders and the knowledge that I gave my word that I would not shirk from my choice to make a Moving Difference, I dressed up in jeans, work boots, work gloves, a long-sleeved shirt, a cowboy hat and sunglasses and, picking up a shovel, a platypus of water and four cheap trash bags, made my way into a concrete arroyo while the high desert sun appeared over the mountains.

I tried taking notes as best as I could:

• I’ve only been out here 16 minutes and its very hard.  I already have a full bag of trash.
• There’s a part of this that seems insurmountable – bad trash bags.  I may not make the two hours.
• Been out here 40 minutes.  I just threw away my first bag of trash.
• In the desert – plastic cup lids dry and crumble.  Plastic leaves from fake plastic plants – don’t.
• If you were interest in making money recycling glass or cans, you have to look behind the walls, too.
• (deleted store name) brand trash bags suck.
• If you were doing this in a group, you’d probably want to rent a plastic dumpster or something.
• To everybody out there doing their hour alone, YOU ARE NOT.
• Just taking a quick break – its hot in all this gear.  Almost done an hour.  Just pulled a few pounds of rusted metal and a sink attachment from a dirt anthill.  We live in a resource-scarce world but look at what we throw away.
• 49 minutes left.  I’ve reached the end of the arroyo.  Its blocked up with dead branches, trash, rocks.   I’m going to finish my time here today – I’m going to open this up and get is ready for the next time water comes through.

There was standing water on top of the mud and sand – left over for almost a week.  Can you say “breeding ground?”

For my last 20-25 minutes, I sat with the shovel, levering out rocks, dead bush limbs, silt, mud, and trash from the end of a 5’ wide ditch – basically mucking it out.   You know what works well to block up a ditch? Plastic bottles.  I must have dug out at least four of them while moving rocks.

As I dug, I saw small pools of water beginning to work through the silt.   When I got to the end, I dug out the sand and dirt and let the water pour down – for almost five to six seconds, I watched with a stupid smile on my face as the water poured down from the blocked area, through the path I cleared, and out the end of the arroyo.

There was nobody there to celebrate.  Just me, with the knowledge that I accomplished a small goal and made a difference.

I started hiking back up the arroyo towards home, pausing a couple times in the shade.  I felt fairly lonely – I had gotten some strange looks from people as I cleaned, but I moved 20-25 pounds of solid waste out of a watershed (plastic pipes, glass bottles, empty aluminum cans, metal, abandoned toys, aka trash) and ensure that mosquitos and flies wouldn’t breed in standing water.  But I was a bit frustrated still – who was there to notice or care?

As I sat there, I felt a breeze – the first breeze I’d felt all morning.  I took my hat off and let the cool air pour over me, and I felt as though nature itself, sharing this short, small cool breeze, said “thank you.”  And I smiled.

To those of you who are participating and are giving your hour on your own, for whatever reason, know this: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  There are others out there, making that difference on their own as well.  More than you could know.

And in answer to the question above, if you make an effort and make a difference but nobody saw, did you make a difference?  The answer is yes.  The world knows you did.  You should be proud.  Because we all are that you are and have gone out and made that difference.

I have 4 hours of my 12 done.  And I’m not stopping.

See you out there.

Amor