Be the Cause

Author: gianna

Recipe for making a hand-made quote

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Recipe:

 A dash of goodwill, a sprig of inspiration

Two tablespoons of unconditional love

heaps and heaps of understanding

 In the normal day to day world, we usually think that we have to be good at something in order to try it…

I’ve found that that kind of thinking doesn’t fly in be the cause…and it gives me hope. Because there really are no limits to what someone can or cannot do when love and service is involved.

I have realized that my mind doesn’t only work in one way. I’m creative, yet have learned how to hear a different language and pretty much understand what is being said through non verbal behavior(smiles, tone of voice, hands in prayer)…I have learned the basics of travel and how worry and fear can be completely wiped out by the warmth of community. I have seen events put together with an incredible ease despite the overwhelming amount of work ahead. I have found myself completing initiatives in a volunteer group that I would usually shy away from and immediately doubt my knowledge of a subject and close the book without letting myself go through the steps needed to learn. We are harsh judges of ourselves at times…what I’ve learned is that mountains move when compassion, inspiration, hope and love are involved…

 Here are some quotes that relate:

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn. – Benjamin Franklin

If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.
A saying from Zimbabwe

Progress involves risk. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.
Frederick Wilcox

Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden

I put the recipe listed above to be clever possibly, but mainly to show that no particular skill, ability was necessary, and the truth is…there was no recipe involved in making these hand-made quotes…as long as it comes from the heart, there is no mistake.

“Leap, and the net will appear”- A story of Seva

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Somehow I became part of this process…went to India and experienced a magical cafe called “seva” in Ahmedabad, India, discussed Seva cafe possibility in OC or LA on plane coming back to the U.S with some others….thought it was just a dream, a flight of fancy. But then not too slowly…after returning from inspirational, completely overwhelming with love trip-o-la…I hear of things starting up…and geez louise…better not stand too close to the fire, which I of course did like usual (sometimes just observing or discussing and then I’m swept up into the creation of events, vacations, experiences of compassion I never thought possible)…and was enveloped into this clearly loving, remarkable experiment in kindness.

Before we headed out to India last December for a 2nd annual service vacation…all the fears and worries and outrageous ramblings of my ego were ready to erupt. I had a million and one questions about travels to come as some will attest to. I doubted my own readiness, knowledge of travel and new scenarios. I guess you could say that the adventurous, fearless, outrageous, ready to serve and experience true heartfulness part of my consciousness won out…because I found myself packing for yet another service vacation to a country that was only a vague mosaic of beauty and heart wrenching images…sometimes clear in my dreams and in meditation, but never in third dimensional reality.

A Seva Cafe launch suddenly was created…and last Saturday it became tangible.

The saying “if you built it, they will come” phrase from a mystical movie about baseball is not just a coined term or corny cliche. This is what happened the other evening…and I felt so fortunate to serve…to be a server, to be a help in the kitchen. It’s what any higher source, good part of your own being wants for you…to participate in goodness in this way.

I won’t go into too much detail, but before heading into the cafe last Saturday to set up…I dropped a crock pot on the sidewalk…because of too much in my hands…going thru all the emotions of that was a tad exhausting. It was a crock pot given to me by one of my bestest friends, so there was some significance attached to it, the crock pot was going to be of help to cooks that night for cooking soup. So there I was sitting on the curb at a loss for a bit before hearing from Srikanth (who insisted on creating SEVA in LA area without even seeing the SEVA cafe we experienced in Ahmedabad, but feeling the love halfway across the world. I truly feel that everyone feels compassionate circumstances on star lit waves from far far away). He had another crock pot. The show must go on. Even the dropping of that crock pot…like in slow motion…it dropped and it got me present if that makes sense…back into my body, back into my heart…sometimes the crashing of some object on pavement wakes one up…out of the mind, the worry, the not present way of being. The cutest dog came up to me and wouldn’t leave. The owner had to pull it away because the dog seemed to want to stay around and comfort me…in a matter of seconds, I was back in the present moment…and the mind kinda crashed as well, making way for the heart and for a beautiful, phenomenal night ahead. I couldn’t have asked for more…

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