Tag Archives: summer

Welcome to Tuesday night /Wednesday early morning

My, my – it has been busy – and there has been some technical humps too!

So the desktop’s wifi crashed officially on Saturday, and with that meant everything that was anything on the computer was being done on my phone – yep – the small screen blues – but hey all is well that ends well – Sunday was spent in part buying a new wifi card and the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to install it…. and then install the software and drivers…. ah… life is a challenge…

Got the wifi back on Sunday evening to help out the MDY3 staff with over 145k of emails that had come in over the last three days…

Then Monday – it rained and that meant the power decided to quit for the afternoon and be sketchy the rest of the evening so back to the small screen blues and tons of phone interviews instead of Skype calls. But we patch it thru and we do what we got to do with what we have at the time….. and that leads us to right now…..

It is 1:25am and I am still going thru all your report emails and it is awesome. Sure, the wifi is working and sure, the power is on, but it is all of the cool stories and all of you that rocks right now….

We estimate that we are over 100,000 hours for the first weekend on MDY3, we will know better come Saturday as we are doing a weekly report of the hours….. yet 100k in hours is awesome….. and we got the rest of the summer to enjoy and do this amazing project….no matter what life throws at us….

I keep thinking one thing in my mind – when life gets all strange and crazy…. it is this song HERE

See you tomorrow….. and remember it’s all right.

 

After Midnight – The start of the MDY3

At midnight sharp begins MDY3

And if you have not started – well start!!!

 

To kick things off, listen to the very talented Scottish Rocker Maggie Bell singing After Midnight….

And with reason, I will actually be up at midnight my time and talking over the airwaves in Scotland – Edinburgh to be exact…. (I will post the link to the radio station on Twitter!)

See Moving Difference is over there as well, there are a bunch of people (last number was 2000+) that are kicking off Moving Difference by an entire day of volunteering for various charities….

and I hear that they have a pile of questions, laughs and stories to tell me and everybody listening…. it should be a great time….

 

What is happening after that you ask, well, depending on the time, I am going for a little 8 mile walk and then the MDY3 staff takes over and everybody is out and about in several different states helping at a food bank, pet shelter, homeless youth safe place and a children’s hospital – until roughly 5pm and then we are going to drop in on some people that inspire us too with some cookies and cards- either nursing home or veterans homes or the hospital before going home to see all the emails about what you lovely people did on the first day of MDY3!!

 

 

It is only fitting that the first day of MDY3 is a 24 hour day for me, I wouldn’t have it any other way…. 🙂

 

midnight

Until the clock strikes, midnight, – be good to yourself….

 

 

The Road not taken

Morning light brings many things into view.

Mostly, that I want food.

My adventures in the world of Moving Difference, has lead me to speak at several civic groups, pick up trash with youth groups, drive tons of miles, receive a lot of emails and volunteering at so many places across the state and now the country, well – it is hard not to want breakfast because the rest of the day is going to be busy.

This is my road not taken. I am not a morning person. In fact, mornings are for people that refuse to stay up overnight and properly greet the dawn with sneers. Okay it isn’t that bad, but it is bad. And no, coffee doesn’t work. And no, I don’t make everybody else suffer because I don’t like mornings.

In fact many people don’t even know this about me. I truly make an effort not to refuse doing something at 6 in the morning and be ugly about it.

So I am not the “bubbly change the world” person but I am present, briefly smiling and WANT FOOD.

Since the start of Moving Difference last June, I have done more mornings before 6am than I have done in the last five years alone.

I have discovered that if you don’t get breakfast when you wake up that early then your entire day is going down hill fast and before noon…..

IMG_2910

I have also discovered that an orange cut in half and the guts eaten make a great cooking bowl for over-easy eggs and ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls. AND a banana with the ends cut off and grilled in peel makes a tasty treat with the frosting packet from the cinnamon rolls!!

Not bad for a healthy breakfast on the road and certainly an adventure to make when half-wake!!

My road not taken of early mornings have lead me to places and people that are beyond beauty, they are life-changing. So I will take this road not taken for a bit more and see where it ends before I wiggle back into the night schedule and remember the mornings of campfire eggs…..

So what is your road not taken?

A Few Good Things Remain

Think about it…

You are part of Moving Difference, it is something that is bigger than yourself.

You are a drop of water of a huge wave of giving forward to our communities.

You are taking one hour a week and you are making a difference while another person is doing the same thing in a different part of the world or maybe across the street.

It is all about the “you” in this world.

It is pretty amazing when you stop and think about it.

The last few weeks of the Moving Difference project, I am thrilled and saddened.

Moving Difference has set out and accomplished what it was to do and then some. It has been a long hot summer and it is marked with wonderful amazing people doing awesome things in their communities hour by hour of giving their time. That is the thrilling part.

The sad part is that it is coming to an end. The great summer of Moving Difference is fading into a memory or a distant thought. And in some ways that is good too. When we all watch that sunset on September 21, 2012 marking the end of Moving Difference and the end of summer, we will also all be marking ourselves as achievements of people that cared and actually stepped forward to be a difference, humans that made a decision to give their time to things that moved their hearts and minds.

As we head together to the final summer sunset and the closing scenes of Moving Difference for this year, I asked that you email us your Moving Difference hours as soon as possible so we can get the count in and going before the official end on September 21.

      I am still very proud of each of you, still working as hard as we did in the beginning when this project started, and still in amazement everyday about how big Moving Difference is and how wonderful people are.

   You being you is the thing that reminds me everyday that despite the crazy world that we all live in, a few good things remain.

Peace,

Jeny

It is Saturday morning at 12:20 am – Good Morning!

By the light of the crickets, I write this entry to you.

I am so proud of Moving Difference, its vision was a 1000 hours over a summer, we did 5700+ the first three weeks.

After a few hours here tonight, I can tell you the number has gone up.

Moving Difference is now 6421 hours completed as a Moving Difference.

There are still a few hundred emails to open but we will get there and we will get them logged.

I wanted to share one email with you this early morning though. It is what this project is all about. I have tucked it below for your reading. I just want to say this about life, once you think you have seen it all, think again.

This world is a wonderful place.

The email:

“Dear Jeny,

The Moving Difference fever struck our house this week! I am reporting our total family hours for the week as 26 and 26 soccer balls donated to Orphans of War Campaign. We encouraged our children to join us in a few activities and for every hour they did, we told them we would purchase a soccer ball for charity. Jake and Stacy really thought it was cool, and we went to Academy last night to get the soccer balls. The kids were so excited they explained what they did to the clerk, who called the manager who give us the soccer balls at a discount. Then informed our children that for the rest of the summer, every hour they did on the Moving Difference project, he would purchased the soccer balls for them to ship to the charity. Needless to say our house is a buzz for next week, the kids have planned themselves into 40 hours!! I am sure that you will have a few more folks helping out in the days ahead – the kids are telling everybody!!

Thank you for this wonderful summer family project. ”

Pretty cool huh?

The First Week of Moving Difference

Today is a big day for Moving Difference, today it is a week old!!!

            It has been amazingly fast week!

            I crunched some fun numbers to share with you all about the first week.

            Here it goes –

            Emails received 18,685 – Emails replied 18,542

            Pints of blood donated across the nation – 348

            Hours spent picking up trash – 249

            Hours spent working in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter – 288

            And here is the best number of all –

1148 hours – the total number of hours that Moving Difference has completed across the world in its first week.

            Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

            The world might seem upside down but here we are, a Moving Difference, a week old, over a 1000 hours completed and the rest of the hot summer to go – time to redefine ourselves to bigger dreams!!!

            Moving Difference is now a goal of 10,000 hours by the end of the summer. One hour at a time getting out, moving and making a difference.

            We can do this!!

          We did a 1000 hours already!! By September 21, 10k in hours making a Moving Difference is going to be easy!! And that sunset on September 21 is going to be AMAZING!!

          So come on – Join in! Grab a friend and have a great summer!!

 

So we are all on the same page –

            Moving Difference kicked off with a bang yesterday – 249 hours!

            This is incredible! Amazing and mind-blowing!!

            This is 249 hours of you, wonderful people stepping up and making a moving difference.

             Your time is a precious resource. Very precious.

            Moving Difference is the time of you, your friends & family, your neighbors and even your co-workers.

            I want to make sure that you know that I know it is all about each of you.

            I say you universally in the sense that you all are part of this world.

            This is your achievement, your sweat and your drive to make a difference.

             Moving Difference can’t be done without you.

               Moving Difference is your passion and the world’s benefit.

            I humbly submit that I am a small passenger on this journey, very small.  I am thankful that you all allow me to be part of this amazing journey called Moving Difference. I am grateful for the moments, the laughs, every email, every call and every moment that I spend working on it.

            With that I need to let you all know that Moving Difference did 178 hours today – bringing the grand total to 427 hours in two days – There are plenty of emails to read and post and it will happen. Going to let everybody know the hours total on a weekly basis now since there are just a lot of happy emails to read and process into numbers. But I will take care of that, you just keep being you and know that I am extremely thankful.

            Peace to All!!

First Sunset of Moving Difference

An idea that was first written on a burrito napkin has now become reality.

Today was the day that Moving Difference kicked off, the first day of summer and the first day of the simple concept of moving and making a difference.

There are hundreds of emails to go thru, people reporting their hours and people asking tons of questions – I promise I am going to read them all and report the hours on the Facebook site and of course here.

83.33 people (friends and family) doing 12 hours over a summer, 1000 hours was all I was hoping for. Now I am thinking I won’t be surprised if Moving Difference hits 10k in hours from all over the world at the end of the summer.  

Just today alone – I have emails reports in of over 55 hours of Moving Difference achieved inAustin,Texas– that is pretty amazing and some other good things happening too.

All together for the entire project across the world, it is about 154 hours of Moving Difference right now*** – and that all the read emails/voice messages so far – I still have about 200 emails to look at yet tonight and I am sure the total number is going up! That is the FIRST DAY !!

*** – Writer’s note – it took until roughly past 3a.m., but all emails were read and reported – Total number was 249 hours of Moving Difference..on its first day.

I am impressed! I am shocked! I am grateful! I even cried tears of joy!

Amongst the busy first day of Moving Difference, I did my first hour of Moving Difference. Making balloon animals at a local children’s hospital. My giraffes didn’t look right and my dogs were a bit too big but the kids had fun being critics of the unique world that is the art of balloon animals. Nothing makes you humble like a kid laughing at your attempts to make a poodle and it comes out looking like a pink digestion track with legs. Hey it is my first public attempt at balloon animaling… laughter is good medicine for those kids even though my pride was hurt!! *sniff sniff – smile*

I am still so thankful for the people doing this project – this is a great start!

I want you to know that Moving Difference is because of some really great people – you and your friends & family. It is amazing and wonderful to think that there are people like you out there.

This is the first of one many sunsets on this project

I’m looking forward to the big sunset on September 21, when no matter where in the world we live we stop and all watch that sunset together and enjoy an amazing summer of moving and making a difference together!!

I can’t say it enough – thank you.

I really thank you all for being part of Moving Difference. I am looking forward to the rest of the summer and looking forward to having more people join in this really amazing movement of moving and making a difference.

From the bottom of my heart – thank you for being amazing people! Thank you for being a Moving Difference.

All my respect and love,

Jeny