Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

212)  We painted like children in the face of nature. – Henri Matisse

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard’s Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

The Best Gifts

Mostly, I’m a Grinch about Christmas.

You know what helps?  Reinventing the holidays.

I hang the decorations I like when I like – origami crane mobiles, red spheres dripping from the jade plant, favorite toys on the kitchen pass-through, displaying the pretty cards people send us.  And for me, staying out of the mauls (sic).

But what I like best is giving to charities.

Here are my two favorites:

The Heifer Project

The Heifer Project has their roots in WWII.  After the war, people in Europe were hungry and hurting.   An Arkansas farmer figured, “What those folks need is a heifer.”  He gave them one.  And that’s what they’ve been doing ever since.

They give folks in need breeding pairs of animals, fruit trees, bees…  And they train folks in how to care for the animals or plants.

 The owner doesn’t just eat the animal, they breed them.  That then becomes a small business that pays for clothing, medicine, and schools for their children.

The good news continues.  The recipient of the animal passes on a breeding pair to someone else and trains them.  That family then passes it on and on and on.  It’s paying it forward in a big way.  Whole villages are transformed this  way, lifted out of poverty, becoming self-sufficient and able to help others.

Can you imagine the self esteem and smiles.  Look at the website, you can find all kinds of success stories.  You won’t see starving kids.  You’ll see smiles.

And the best thing is you can give chickens, goats, heifers, ducks, and water buffalo in the name of your friends and family.  My Aunt Winnie was so happy when I gave chickens in her name.  She didn’t need a thing for herself.

 This video says it all in one minute.  Watch it.

Trust for Public Land

TPL celebrates 40 years of creating parks and conserving land for people this year.

You know this, but I’ll repeat it, “Parks are good for people.  Good for their souls.  Good for their mental health.  Good for their physical health.”

TPL wants to have a park or a pea patch garden, within walking to wherever  people live, especially underserved populations, which, not surprisingly, are the poorer sections of cities.  Lack of parks diminishes their lives and their souls, keeping them poor in spirit and in pocketbook.  Research shows parks reverse this trend.

 Chances are you have a TPL project near you, perhaps one you have enjoyed for years but never knew TPL had anything to do with it. 

Because TPL turns the projects over to local city, counties, national parks and the like. You may never know what they’ve done unless you visit their site.

They’re humble people.

Look around their website and be amazed at the heart and savvy behind their work.

And something I like, they win awards for the efficient use of your funds.  Almost all of it goes into acquiring the land.  I doesn’t go down a sinkhole of mismanaged flabby overhead.

Oh, and they never go into an area and just do good where they’re not wanted.  They are always invited in by a grass roots groups of people just like you.  I love that.

Think of what fills your heart and do that this season.  Do what you like best.

May you be blessed by your choices this season,

William

P.S. I’m giving the trade paperback version of Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing – An Illustrated Journey to people this year.  You might want to join me in this.  It’s pretty and will look good on coffee tables.

More importantly, Drawing the Sacred can put people in touch with what’s holy in this time of holydays.

Go for it => Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing – An Illustrated Journey