The Strawberries
It is customary at this time of year for Stillpoint to make its Annual Appeal for donations. We are grateful for the support we receive, and without it we cannot do our work.
This year, however, is different. While our programs gain interest and participation, one of our main benefactors is needing to make significant cuts in our funding, and Stillpoint must do our best to find additional support. If Stillpoint is a spiritual community for you; if the ministry of spiritual companionship in the world is important to you; and if you are able to give, I hope you will consider helping. A one-time or recurring gift through our Annual Appeal will help replace our additional need for 35K. We are so grateful for whatever you are able to do.
Here is an easy way to make a donation.
From now until the end of the year, we will let you know how our campaign is going.
Giving to causes we love is its own gift. Because I know this, asking for financial help is something I am happy to do on behalf of the good work of Stillpoint.
There is a beautiful little story told by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 –1970) known for his theory of the hierarchy of human needs. His family had a tradition every year when the strawberries were in season to go to the market together as a family, his wife and two young daughters, and buy the first fruits of this season. They would bring them home, wash them together, and divide them into a bowl for each. His daughters would gobble up their strawberries quickly. He and his wife would savor theirs. And then the girls would sit and stare at their parents, hoping it wasn’t over yet, that there might be a few more berries coming to them from their parents’ bowls. It was the moment in the ritual Maslow loved the most because, he said, “I knew the berries in my bowl would taste better in their mouths.”
This story revisits me often. It is a story of the beautiful felt sense of giving. Our offering tastes better in another’s mouth than in our own. The socks are warmer on another’s feet; the dinner is more nourishing in another’s stomach; I feel richer when I give money away.
It is no surprise that generosity is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit recorded in the Christian scriptures. The Greek word used for generosity is pleroma, meaning fullness; that which makes full or complete; a fullness that comes through giving away and arrives as a gift from a place greater than ourselves. It comes when I am free enough to share my berries with another, and experience that they taste better in another’s mouth.
In these times, generosity is greatly needed. And we are the ones who get to be the vessels of this Spirit gift. We will need to make our own rituals. In this dark time of year, our light is needed, the light that darkness is unable to quench.
In this season of Light, to give is to be light in the world.
Recently, I noticed my local shopping center had put up all its seasonal lighting earlier than ever. When in the past I might have scoffed at this rushing in, I felt grateful. I realized how much my soul responded to the light. We need light now! We need to be light now! What will our rituals be to bring light into the world this season? What extra effort is needed so that the light doesn’t go out for another?
For each donation to Stillpoint, we will place a light on our wreath in thanksgiving for the spiritual community God is helping us grow to be Light in the world.
With great Gratitude and Blessings for the Journey,
Elizabeth+
