It was 6 months ago today that I officially purchased the two houses that are the foundation of the Community House Network.  Anniversaries are milestones to be celebrated, and so today I will find something to cheer about.  In your own projects, make sure you do the same! 

If you have read Shackleton's Way, then you should take note of the power of celebration and positive morale.  From their website:  SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON  has been called "the greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none" for saving the lives of the twenty-seven men stranded with him in the Antarctic for almost two years. Because of his courageous actions, he remains to this day a model for great leadership and masterful crisis management. Now, through anecdotes, the diaries of the men in his crew, and Shackleton's own writing, Shackleton's leadership style and time-honored principles are translated for the modern business world. 

The Community House Network is a big vision.  To succeed I am going to need all the encouragement I can muster.  By looking at the successes, not just focusing on the seeming failures, I will give myself the inner resolve necessary to continue to move forward.  I encourage everyone reading this to take a minute to do the same.  Think of the past 6 months, or year even.  Where have you been able to see some successes in your life?  Where are you aligned with you vision for your future.  Take a minute and celebrate those.  Write them down, and put them in your pocket.  Keep looking for the successes and good people all around you.

In our course on Creativity, we have been discussing the use of creative intentions to live a life we want to see.  Truly, I am a big believer that we get what we put out there into the world.  Unfortunately, with all of my good intentions, I still have some negative twists where my low self-esteem can come in to create chaos and set me up for self-sabotage.

My creative intention for our first session was to believe that "People are Good and Here to Help."  I repeated this phrase to myself for two weeks, and even wrote a song.  I had become frustrated because I was not seeing the type of participation I wanted, and specifically some folks I thought were my biggest helpers seemed to have left me high-and-dry.  

Then I had a realization, maybe those two weren't meant to be my helpers.  I sent out texts to a dozen other people, and they showed up!  Within a week the small garage behind the Community House came down and made room for us to access the Shop Co-Op (the gemstone of this project).

Hooray for positive visioning!  I made a little video of to honor the experience and used the song I had written.  

Check it out!

PEOPLE ARE GOOD & HERE TO HELP!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10LryxG5Zz3agDppWx3Z0lZAaiKVeIzZY/view?usp=sharing

I have been trying to figure out how to put a donate button linked to the Community House Network endowment account, and as soon as I put a link up, the Foundations Group with whom I have been working sent me some forms to fill out.

The form is for the State of Illinois that requires all charities "be registered for Charitable Solicitation prior to soliciting or fundraising in the state, adding a ""Donate Now"" button to the organization's website, or even accepting a donation other than those used for start up expenses."

This kind of stuff makes me lose my marbles.  I don't know why I can do research on pretty much any topic, write articles, analyze data, but when it comes to legalese I go bananas.  Nothing makes sense.  

This situation was more difficult because the form was being uncooperative.

Needless to say, I deleted my donate button until I can figure it out.

The Open House was small but a powerful experience.  I will have to share more later, once I have figured out how to check the correct boxes for the State of Illinois!

​Wish me luck.

I have been getting ready for our open house this weekend.  It was supposed to be a big fund raiser, but things go a lot more slowly in 3D reality than in my stream of consciousness mental world of imagination.  

However, things are moving along. We have recovery meetings five days a week at the Community House. The Art Garage is in full swing, and we have invited Kelly Beal, with her beautiful heart-centered non-profit to join us once a month with youth activities focused on kindness at the Community House.  We have been filling up our lecture series slowly with conversations with heart-centered leaders.  We started a workshop series called "Already Leading".  Finally, we finished our first course in our series of personal development courses, and had our first session of course #2.  How to Be Creative and Live a Spectacular Life. 

What we have not done is get the Shop Co-Op up and running. Part of the problem is that it is harder than you may think to find contractors who are not so busy that they have time to do their own family affairs, let alone come mentor kids.  I thought I had found my partners, but they work more than I do!  So much for that. 

My imagination can create scenarios about how things are going to get done that don't necessarily pan out. Yesterday, I sat in my own frustration at the "failure" to get done what I wanted to do, I decided to take the advice of Lakshmi, whom I interviewed this week for our If I Knew Then series.  One take away that stuck with me, was "Don't be afraid to ask."

I began sending texts, I didn't even know what I was asking for, so I just sent the note "I need a friend."  Friends called, and texted, and some showed up on my doorstep.  Then we got into action.  And, voila!  The garage came down.

Magical. Spontaneous.  And just what my spirit needed in a moment of wanting to give up.  

I love living a creative, spontaneous life.  It adds an element of fun to everything, but can also be frustrating for those who like linear, planned things.  I do need to have some of those linear types on board since they help me remember to dot the i's and cross the t's.  Hint-hint linear types...

So come one, come all.  We welcome you to the fun of bringing forth a beautiful world of loving community!

Today I am so grateful that I have help in this process.  My brain is very non-linear, and it doesn't follow instructions well.  I am great for coming up with ideas, but less great when trying to follow someone else's lead.

So I need to get my financials in order and when trying to find a CPA on April 15th proved to be incredibly difficult, I can't imagine why, I decided I had better complete the paperwork for getting the tax exempt status.  

Luckily I didn't have to do much more than scroll through the application completed by the Foundation Group, and thank goodness, because even just scrolling through was making my head spin.

So it is done and done, and hopefully it won't take four years to get approved like it did for Kelly.  Big LOVE to her and her passion!

Now I am ready for a nap.