Doodling as Currency of the Heart

Doodling as Currency of the Heart

James Garamella - Dyslexic Jazz Doodler

James Garamella and some of his doodles.

The Dyslexic Jazz Doodler shifted his platform from personal doodling to public art. Two pieces of James Garamella's art were on display at the Pequot Library Art Show last weekend. When one piece sold Jim donated the proceeds of the sale to the library. His doodles, his generosity and his passion for children intrigued me and  captured my imagination. I am interested in the reasons why people give their time and themselves away. Jim's reasons come right out of his childhood experiences in school.

Jim said, "By fourth grade I was banished to the coat closet, asleep or doodling." It was clear learning was hard for him. His learning style was not the same as the other kids in class. Jim was lost in the school system. Dyslexia and learning styles hadn't yet been defined and there was no help for him.

He found self expression in doodling which has now become his art form. Doodling also became his  personal shorthand. 

After being expelled from two Bridgeport High Schools, Jim went on to develop a successful career as a builder in the city of Bridgeport. He was once invited to speak at a school Professional Day. He expected to speak to a group of seventh and eighth graders but much to his surprise he was assigned to a fourth grade class.   He wasn't sure what to say to them so he asked for a storybook and began to read.  When he finished the story he described his struggle to learn to read. He asked if anyone in the room was struggling with reading and asked for a show of hands. Four little boys sitting at one table looked at each other, shrugged and raised their hands.

Jim spoke directly to those four boys and told them to ask for help when they needed it. He told them not be embarrassed because learning to read is that important.

His passion now is to encourage kids who learn differently. This Saturday he will offer an art experience for children at the Weston Library. He will tell his story and encourage all who come to draw or doodle and then he will frame their creations.

Jim's offering at the library is an example of  what I call spending currency of the heart.

The Dyslexic Jazz Doodler shifted his platform from personal doodling to public art. Two pieces of James Garamella's art were on display at the Pequot Library Art Show last weekend. When one piece sold Jim donated the proceeds of the sale to the library.

His doodles, his generosity and his passion for children intrigued me and  captured my imagination. I am interested in the reasons why people give their time and themselves away. Jim's reasons come right out of his childhood experiences in school. 

After our interview, he  gave me a gift of this angel print and said "The angel's message is everything will be all right." Be an angel and bring a child to the art event at the Weston Library on Saturday October 26, 2013 at 10AM. All materials and instruction are provided by James Garamella.

 Jim's website is www.dyslexicjazzdoodler.com.

Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams

Women's World Summit Foundation

Let me introduce you to Elly Pradervand, she founded the Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) in 1991 and continues to guide and direct the daily activities of the organization.   Each year WWSF awards prizes to rural woman leaders for creativity and courage exhibited in their day-to-day life. Since it’s inception WWSF has given $1,000 cash awards to 385 rural women leaders and women’s groups around the world for their work in improving the quality of life in rural areas.

I was privileged to meet Elly a few years ago at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. There she introduced prize award winners to the global audience gathered in New York.  Elly is a Swiss citizen of German origin, an advocate for women’s and children’s rights and educator, mother of two, grandmother of four, and an avid activist for the creation of a world that works for all.

In 1991, compelled by her knowledge of the hazardous and extreme conditions of many rural women’s lives around the world, she founded the Women’s World Summit Foundation to shed light on their contributions to household food security, development and peace. This humanitarian, non-governmental, not-for-profit, Swiss Foundation has attained United Nations consultative status with ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) and is a member of UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and DPI (the UN Department of Public Information.

The population that the Foundation serves is invisible to most of the world. When you ask Elly why she is doing this work, she pauses and with an emotionally charged voice she tells this story about visiting a village where the women take her to a field, showed her the rudimentary tools they use to plant seeds to grow the food they need to feed their families.  She recognized that their food security rested on those tools and field. She saw that when she tried to break ground with the tool that was handed to her, she couldn’t dig a hole.  She could not imagine how they could get anything to grow on the rock hard, unforgiving soil.  In that moment she knew she had to do something for those women and their children who have no voice in the political systems and economic environments in which they live.

The second story Elly tells is of a woman she met who walked six hours everyday to get clean water for her family - six hours every day, barefoot in the hot sun, day in and day out. When we hear these stories, see pictures of the women who live in this harsh terrain and learn of their creativity and courage in meeting the challenges of their lives it brings tears and hope and gratitude for women like Elly who respond from the depths of their hearts.

WWSF will honor again ten rural women in 2013 to receive the annual prize for women’s creativity in rural life. Prizewinners will be announced to the media on 15 October - International Day of Rural Women.

Link: http://www.woman.ch/index.php?page=laureates-2012&hl=en_US

The first mission of the WWSF is to empower rural women of the world, bringing their stories to light and acknowledging their creativity as they enhance lives in their communities. WWSF, under Elly’s leadership and guidance, has also co-created in 1995 the World Day for Rural Women-15 October and launched in 2000 the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse - 19 November, which evolved into the 19 Days of activism campaign for prevention of violence against children and youth 1-19 November.  

Elly Pradervand spends the currency of her heart by giving a voice to voiceless rural women and by advocating for better prevention of violence against children and youth around the world by encouraging a transformation of traditions and structures into pathways for equality, non violence, development and respect for human rights. How do you spend your currency of the heart?

Follow Elly and WWSF on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Huffington Post

• Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Womens­World­Summit­Foundation/123455932640 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wwsfoundation
• YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/user/WWSFoundation
• Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elly­pradervand/

 Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams

The Women's Global Mission Network is a perfect example of Currency of the Heart

Sometimes the creation of a movement is a simple as someone saying, ‘This worked for me, why don’t you try it too and if you’d like, we’ll work together’.

Kim Polhemus is passionate about gender equality. As a member of Anglican Women’s Empowerment, she knows she can make a difference in the lives of women globally. This background was the impetus behind Kim starting a Women’s Global Mission group with her friend Kris Cassar at their parish, St. John’s Episcopal, New Milford, CT.

With the success of this group, the idea for replicating the group into a network was born. Women’s Global Mission Network engages the women of the Diocese of CT and creates a platform to partner her faith and her passion for gender justice. She found other women had the same intentional themes in their lives. It is brilliant to connect the dots, create a network, paving the way to enhancing the lives of marginalized women and girls around the world.

A launch event was held in January, 60 women from the Diocese of CT attended. The women received a package of material designed to create and maintain their own parish group. The materials provide ways to gather the women, educate the parish, including action steps and a plan to create a mission focus (for example; girls’ education, elimination of violence against women and girls or the trafficking of women and girls). The format is flexible and allows each group to start at its own comfort level. The material also shares resources that will allow the women within each parish group to come to the same level of understanding about the issues faced by our global sisters.

The Network currently has 10 parishes with active Women’s Global Mission groups. A monthly e-news and Face Book page keep everyone current on what is happening with other groups. The entire network of women will gather 3 times a year to connect, collaborate and support each other.

With the addition of each new parish group, the network is reborn, along with the excitement of new possibilities. If you would like to receive information on starting your own Women’s Global Mission group please contact Kim Polhemus at womensglobalmission@gmail.com  

In Kim’s words,” We knew the hope of creating a Network would be realized at our first meeting with the Diocesan Canon for Mission Development by their response and generous offers of help. I’ll never forget walking away from that first meeting. Kris and I were so excited we linked arms, looked at each other and said at the same time, ‘This is going to be BIG!!’

And that prediction is turning out to be accurate. New parish groups have joined the network each month since the launch event was held last winter. The Network currently has 10 parishes with active Women’s Global Mission groups and continues to grow.

Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams

Kindness Brings Currency of the Heart to Light

Synchronicity is Currency of the Heart

The bright yellow flower in the cupped palms of two hands, on a book cover caught my eye as I walked into J.R.Julia's book store in Madison, CT, in January. Yellow flowers are rare in CT in the winter, even pictures of them. Then I noticed the name of the author, Stephanie Dowrick. She was a class mate of mine at the New Seminary. Stephanie lives in Austrailia and I haven't seen her since our ordination as interfaith ministers in 2005.

Her book arrived in my life right on time. The first Currency of the Heart blog post was scheduled for February 14 and here was a book called Everyday Kindness. It felt like Stephanie was talking to me, saying "Here's a thought. Read this." I did read the book and now I'd like to share a few of her thoughts with you. 

"Kindness drives connection and engagement, empathy and comfort. It is thoughtfulness in action. It is self-respect and concern for others in action. 

Kindness lets you live life to the full. It expresses your gratitude for who you are and what you can contribute.

You can't become kinder to others  without also benefiting yourself. You can't be more genuinely self-supportive without also asking and needing less of others-and benefiting them also. 

Kindness doesn't mean surrendering your boundaries or meeting every demand that comes your way. It doesn't mean becoming a doormat that others can walk over. It can mean being much clearer about saying no as well as yes.  Nevertheless, kindness pushes you to take other people into account constantly, even while it saves you from harming, demeaning or sacrificing yourself.

Kindness helps you physically as much as it does emotionally and spiritually. It keeps you connected. It relaxes. It radically reduces tension and stress. It doesn't depend on status, education or wealth. It doesn't depend on brilliance or age. And it certainly can't depend only on things always going well for you. (Easy to be kind when everything is going our way. Far more to be kind when life is not going our way.)


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Kindness is a way of life and living, depends on choices made and remade on a daily basis."

Visit Stephanie's website 

Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams

Shooting Hoops Creates Currency of the Heart

Dr Jodie Meyer and Dr. Steve Tuber have found a unique way to invest the currency of their hearts into their community. This professional couple (both psychologists) created a basketball program for third through eighth grade boys and girls in Hastings on Hudson, NY, in 2002 and have managed it ever since. Both wife and husband are involved in all aspects of the Program every Saturday from early December through the end of March each year.

Most importantly, the Program is guided by developmental principles aimed at minimizing the stress and maximizing the fun of childhood athletics. It creates a dynamic balance among competition, caring and sportsmanship. Procedures have been derived that strive to ensure that teams are balanced skill-wise; that playing time is equitable; that rules and even the size of the basketballs are modified to fit the developmental needs of the children as they progress through the Program; and that parents are strongly guided to positively

support their children’s play without criticism of coaches, referees or other players. Referees are high school students (often graduates of the basketball program) and are also guided by Jodie and Steve to promote fairness and fun.

 

Steve writes an article reviewing every game every week in the local town paper, the Rivertowns Enterprise. Over the course of the season every player is mentioned at least once in the article. In this way each child is given public attention and credit for his or her efforts on the basketball court.

Jodie and Steve, as they are known by the locals, do all of this because they love doing it, they love the kids who play basketball, they love their community, Hastings on Hudson, and they derive deep gratification from helping to evoke the life lessons learned by all concerned through being part of a team sport.



Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams

Philanthropy, Fashion and Fun

_{11-Year-Old Philanthropist 
Lets Her Fingers Do the Fundraising}

_{Philanthropy, fashion and fun intertwined when 11-year-old Emma Geertgens hooked her friends, her grandmother and even her brother into helping crochet hats to raise money for the Burlington County Animal Shelter} www.friendsofbcas.org/

_{When Emma’s family was looking for a family pet, they had visited the Burlington County Animal Shelter in Westhampton,NJ.  Emma was surprised and saddened to see so many animals waiting to be adopted.  The family eventually adopted a big, sad-eyed boxer named Betty, and Emma never forgot the trip. A Currency of the Heart seed was planted during that visit.}

_{Completely engaged in life, Emma is always playing field hockey, roller-skating or biking. At home she is baking, reading, writing poetry, practicing the cello and crocheting.}

_{Emma crocheted a stylish hat that all her friends loved. When she realized how popular the hats were becoming, Emma decided to sell her creations at the local Christmas fair to raise money for the animal shelter.}

_{Instinctively Emma connected the dots. Her love of animals, the popular hats, and her enjoyment of a holiday fair in years past pulled all the pieces of the project together.  A designer, entrepreneur and a philanthropist emerged.}

_{Emma’s  hobby took on a life of its own.  Her hands became a crocheting machine. She walked, talked, and watched TV while crocheting hats. One hat, one flower, finished in one hour. Done. Next.}

_{After enlisting the help of friends and family last November, Emma set up a table at her local holiday fair and offered her hats for sale from inventory and made-to-order in additional colors.}

_{This project captivated Emma’s imagination, delighted customers with a colorful accent to winter fashions, and helped the animal shelter. When all the orders were fulfilled, Emma tallied the results: $421 earned! Last Thursday she presented a check for that amount to Jackie Daniels, manager of the Burlington County Animal Shelter.}

_{No one could have been happier than Emma, except of course, the folks at the shelter. Emma had turned her Currency of the Heart into cold, hard cash to support abandoned animals.} 

Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com. 

© 2013 Rosemary Williams