Bubbles

There are times when I hear comments that are articulated in such a way, that they glue something together in my mind, almost permanently.  In other words, they stick with me for a very long time.  For example, several years ago a very good friend of mine spent part of his life in Romania doing some incredibly meaningful work for a community of people, with his lovely wife. He shared a comment with me that sounded something like “Whatever you have, hold on to it with an open hand”. The take-away for me on this was to not be too attached to things.  Things can break, or they can become more important than they are supposed to be. Sometimes things are taken from me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when I am not expecting that to happen, there may be a hurt that is associated with that experience.

Over the last couple of months, I had been preparing for a massive clean up and work day at a community center in my neighborhood on June 1st.  I had several real concerns like not having enough materials to work with, committed volunteers to help, or enough food to feed everyone lunch.  While good planners make sure that all these things are in order, this was becoming a little obsessive for my “perfectionist-control-freak” nature.  A few days before the big event I had the opportunity to exercise the “holding on to this with an open hand” thinking. In other words, I needed to responsibly let go of what my expectations were for this event.  And, once I put that thinking into practice, I found that my expectations were in fact taken away.  The surprise for me was what I found in its place: joy of doing the work I really love to do.

On Friday, the day just before our big event, a dear friend of mine and my beautiful wife came by to drop off some materials.  She is such a great example of what it means to be filled with “Joy”.  As she and I were talking, she shared a wonderful nugget of verbal gold with me.  What I heard from our conversation was “you can only give of yourself, what is spilling out of yourself” - or in her case, what is bubbling over from within.  She expounded upon this in a very rich way for me and it was encouraging to just listen. She shared that when someone “bubbles over” they have enough within them to be sustained - as well as enough to share with those around them.  If I am not “bubbling over”, and I give away what is within me, there is a possibility that I can be emptied out, or that I might run out of energy to share.

It has been a couple days since she shared that insight, and her words have sort of cemented themselves in my mind. Reflecting over this past week, I can see in hindsight that I was running out of energy and had a little too much concern over “things”.  Realizing that I was firmly holding on to my expectations, I understood that I had to responsibly let go.  Once I did, it seemed as if the energy came back, the smiles were on, and the joy of what I set out to do in the first place returned.  In fact, I felt equipped and able to share energy with others, because I had something in me that was “bubbling over from within”.

The result of all this was a very inspiring work day event...perhaps "miraculous" is a better term. We registered 82 volunteers, however, there were an estimated 125 that showed up to work. We had about a dozen projects running for nearly 7 hours.  Tools showed up  for all of them, and materials simply arrived. Classrooms were painted, murals were designed, lighting systems were repaired, gardens were weeded, flowers and vegetable plants were installed, trees were trimmed, beautiful signs were created and put up for the entire neighborhood to see - - everyone was fed, and everyone that I saw had a smile. The lesson here for me? You get some serious mileage out letting go, and bubbling over.

About 30 volunteers from a youth group in Ann Arbor, MI

New garden sign installed!

Cleaning up a vacant lot

Volunteers working on Crossroads Garden

***If you ever find yourself in SE Michigan, and want to see some amazing changes in the northwest Detroit landscape, please let me know.  I would enjoy taking you on a tour of my community, and the Brighmoor community, which has seen some wonderful turn around in the last few years.***