Have you decided what to do with your Seed Money yet?
Have you passed it forward? Enjoyed a meal with a friend? Encouraged someone else’s dream? Created your master plan? Learned lessons around your relationship with money? Are you excited about the potential of this packet of coins? Waiting for the “perfect” opportunity? Keeping it safe? What are your thoughts on this “project”?
This space is your canvas – paint us a picture using the colorful pallet of your imagination. Inspire us all to be the best that we can be and grow the magnificence of possibilities. Challenge us to stretch and take risks. Gift us with your wisdom and insight. Ask the deep questions and open the door to the inspired answers.
Thank you for fully participating at whatever level you feel called to. Post your thoughts today!
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Filed under: share stories | Tagged: Encourage, money, Packet of Coins, Possibilities, Spiritual Source
seedsofaction
On the issue of generosity one issue I struggle with is the issue of panhandlers on the street. It is not a small issue for me– I walk everywhere and am downtown a lot. I probably get hit up 20 times a day or more. I am also on a very,very tight budget that complicates things. I am curious how other people look at this issue. I know on one level city fathers ask us not to contribute on the street, but give to organizations which help the homeless –which I do. Yet if one asks the question “What would Jesus do?” I think it is safe to say he would contribute whatever he had. I also know that the law of compensation says I am cutting off my own flow by not giving. It doesn’t feel good not to give– yet it also does not often feel right to give. I have no problem with the folks who sell the street paper as their is an exchange that takes place. I would be interested in your vir=ews on that. I am glad to hear that we may be able to sell our products at church. I do have some talents in flower arranging so I may try to sell one each Sunday. Danny
Generosity and Creating the Unity of Seattle New Technology. While the efforts to bring Unity of Seattle closer to the 21 century with some “whizz bang” techology is not part of the Seeds of Action program as I understand it, I find some correlation. Both are about growing, stretching and generosity is part of the creative process for the congregation. As an aside, I wonder if our techology effort is really 21st Century or 20th Century catch up effort, but I will defer that discussion for another day. I am a relative newcomer to this church but an old hand at Unity and New Thought. I love Unity of Seattle as it seems to have captured Holmes “Open at the Top” philosophy of evolving New Thought to new ideas. Clearly the ministerial leadership of this church has expanded its interpretation of Unity to be very inclusive. I am pleased at it’s unofficial slogan “Where the Mind of the Buddah Meets the Living Jesus Christ” and this congregations willingness to incorporate The Oneness Blessing and other spiritual practices into our community spiritual life. It has indeed been an invitation to broaden and deepen my own spiritual life for which I am grateful. Yet, part of me misses the downplay of traditional Unity principles. For example, we seemed to have missed a teaching moment in our effort to acquire updated technology. One of Unity’s 5 Principles tells us “We are co-creators with God, creating reality through thoughts held in mind.” Most Unity Churches I have attended would have approached this fund drive consistent with those 5 basic principles. After discernment and prayerful approach (which I assumed the Board did) the congregation would have been approached with traditional Unity tools consistent with the Law of Mind Action. As such, an affirmation would have been developed and other tools and methods like Vision Boards or Treasure Maps used. Where is the Vision Map in the Narthex that shows the techology we wish to manifest? I don’t even know what technology we want so my ability to use the 12 Powers like Imagination can’t be too helpful. What is the affirmation that we as a congregation could use as a body to focus attention? Are those time honored Unity teachings and practices just too old fashioned? Do they no longer have a role in our corporate creative process at Unity of Seattle? Are Unity Principles and practices something we just regulate to a discussion group between the two services? I am not trying to be critical– but to offer constructive inquiry in discussing the spiritual practice of generosity. Clearly the congregation is being invited to practice “Generosity” to manifest the technology. Yet it seems we have overlooked Unity teacings on the Creative process and employed rather conservative practice like “Casino Night” ! What’s next– regular Bingo nights like our Catholic brothers and sisters have used for years? Perhaps lutefisk and jello salad dinners that have built many a Lutheran congregation? I am not adverse to “moving our feet” as a necessary ingredient in the creative process. While I personally detest gambling I will participate because I want the end product (techology). I am just bothered that we seem to have missed an opportunity to use Practical Christianity and metaphysical Unity teachings. As an individual I am struggling with what to do with my own “Bag of Coins” and how I might maximize those coins and my own talents. The connection of how I do that and how the church manifests its technology does not seem unrelated to me. I hope this does not seem too far afield and it generates some dialog here ont he issue. Danny
Hi all!
Thank you so much for the opportunity to use the gold coins to increase the flow of money into and out of my world!
That gold coin Sunday was great, as is every Sunday at Unity of Seattle. Before we received our blessing of the money, I gave $10 for my offering. Usually I give all the coins I have and maybe up to $2 or so. So, before I even left the building, Unity gave and received and I gave and received! It felt so good!
I’ve had some resistance over the years concerning money, and I’m beginning to understand this idea of generosity and flow. It’s not how I was raised at all, and I’m excited to make these changes and teach my children a different way of being with money.
As far as giving money to homeless people…
This is what I do. I give them any food that I have on me, change in my pocket, or whatever I’m able to on that day. Sometimes I don’t have anything to give but a smile. And then I silently bless them. And I’m also silently thankful for the roof over my head, the car I’m driving, the bus I’m taking, the clothes on my back.
It has taken me awhile to be this way with homeless people, but it seems to work for me and for them. I know what it means to struggle, and I also have hope for us to thrive!
Blessings to you all.
Thanks, Caron, for your feedback. I hope we get some of this dialog and conversation on this blog. My secret hope is the “New Technology” plans is for a more interactive website with a moderated blog or chat room. Unity was a leader with bokstores and auditapes as a form of communication and I hope the national rganization and Unity of Seattle embrace the opportunities of the internet. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to discuss Rev. Richard’s talks during the week?
I pretty well answered my homeless question myself by asking the question. I have decided “does it feel more expansive to donate or constrictive”? So I go with the flow and give what I can. I guess we aren’t called upon to save the world, but to do what we can.
I have had the fortune over the years to attend Prosperity workshops by some of the great Unity Master Prosperity teachers– Katherine Ponder and Edwene Gaines. Edwene is still traveling the country with her great programs. Unfortunately none are schedued i the near future for the Northwest. However, she does have a great website with many CDs on the issue– http://www.prosperity products.com.
One of the things that I really like about Unity of Seattle is the low key approach to the offering. Rev. Richard who is usually over the top tends to be decidedly loy key as he appeals to us. It seems to work– sometimes “less is more”. I know it is a great incentive to me to give more than I might otherwise.
Danny
Blessings, All,Building toward better tech for Seattle Unity and mixing that with peace workin is both exciting and promising. So far, the $10.00 has actually grown to only $14.00, through incense sales to neighbors who know I’m an easy source, but Ali, the owner of Cherry Street Coffee Houses, has now given me a wholesale price for postcards, all peace-themed, and I can now include these in a sales table, as soon as Rymie gives the go-ahead a details. As soon as she does this, we can bring in other people’s items, too.
David
This is such a great thing to be able to write to each other. Thank you Seattle Unity Staff. Every one of you are precious and sweet and great mirrors.
The coolest and most fun thing I have done lately, is instead of spending 500.00
on a prosperity workshop, I gave it away to a homeless person, who didn’t know me and I thought they were going to have a heart attack. That would have been a bummer, but the point is, why pay someone to tell me how to receive more – when i know for a fact that giving and knowing in your gut and your heart that there is an infinite source, we are always in possession of what we desire.
Thank you for participating in this ‘big give’. I remember feeling the increased energy in the building as we were handing out the silver dollars that Sunday morning at Seattle Unity. And I felt it also for me…I used it to complete some CD projects…and have already returned it 10 fold+…gave Seattle Unity 9 CDs that they can sell, keeping 100%…a $135.00 value.
Also, I decided we decided another $20 of silver dollars to a Biznik event we are hosting, sharing with them about Seattle Unity’s ‘big give’, and encouraging them to pass on this abundance out into the world.
Thank you, Seattle Unity, for your on-going support of
each one in this commuity!
To all the folks who are interested in bringing in their “talents” to the Marketplace in the Fellowship Hall, I will have two tables set up this Sunday 6/1 and we will continue to have tables available every Sunday until 6/29, the day of the Seeds of Action Festival.
Blessings, all around!
Beads of Compassion
I have never witnessed rolls of money being passed out indiscriminately to the crowd of people attending church before. I can only imagine what the meetings leading up to that action must have been like. Surely there were at least two sides to those discussions!
In the context of the Parable of the Talents on May 4, the announcement of Seeds of Action will go down as the most memorable Sunday morning of my life. I am serving as the scribe for five of us who typically meet at Unity each Sunday. We five come from about seven walks of life. Our discussions always have more than two sides to them, and when we pooled our $50.00 we had more than three ideas of what to do with the money.
My favorite was Philosophers’ Phudge. Over several weeks we collected famous and family fudge recipes and met at last on the sidewalk in front of church to select a recipe, appoint a shopper for ingredients, “volunteer” a kitchen for the work, itemize the tools required to determine who should bring what to the fudge party, plan the packaging, and vow to one another not to eat up the product!
A couple of days before the scheduled fudge session one of us told another of us to call the others of us and suggest a change of plans. “Let’s make Beads of Compassion” said the voice in my cell phone. I answered “Why not,” but I was really thinking “Huh?” Fudge packaged in wise sayings sounded like so much fun. For the next few days the bead idea grew from putting a few beads and a piece of string in baggies with instructions for stringing them into a full-blown Bead Event concept.
The five of us met at Fusion Beads on Stone Way on a buying mission. We had more ideas than budget, and the ladies at Fusion were supremely helpful in focussing our energy to the realities of budget and effective implementation. Onyx beads from Botswana, wooden spacers on sale, strong stretchy string to hold it all together filled the little shopping bag and just made it within our budget. The Fusion staff got into the spirit and when we finished that part of the mission we were ready for work.
We reconvened at a Starbucks where we assembled the bracelets and found specialists among us: artists (no two bracelets were the same!), stringers (steady finger-and-eye coordination), and the indispensable final-tier (tiny, strong fingers of a surgeon!). We finished that session with a brief discussion of marketing ideas and chose sayings related to compassion to print on little business cards, sayings from the dictionary, Thomas Merton, and the Buddha.
The last pre-sale meeting was on the sidewalk in front of a Jamba Juice place. We appraised the final work of our collective hands, attached the cards, put our hands over the beads and blessed them with a prayer that the compassion we had learned over the preceding weeks would continue to spread to those who bought the beads, those who heard about the beads, and those who would see the beads on the wrists of those willing to wear them.
We sold the Beads of Compassion to friends, each other, family members, co-workers, and to Unity folk downstairs at church at the breakfast and ice cream social. We’re not sure what the final figure of the return on our investment was, but it was somewhere near $200.00. More than whatever that figure was, we profited from the saying we included on our card from Thomas Merton: “Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.”
Indeed it is!
–Pete, Kathy, Steven, Hsin, and Susan