
Mar 6, 2024 Flourishing: An Awakin Call with Matthew Lee Matthew Lee, a distinguished sociologist, professor, and researcher, joined us in a recent ServiceSpace Awakin Call. Dedicated to fostering flourishing and well-being in our world, Matthew says, "Life, at its core, is about love and service." Check out this touching, behind-the-scenes video provided by his colleague, Juan Xi. In it, Juan shares a story that demonstrates Matthew's equinimity and kindness in action. Watch the full Awakin Call (Flourishing: Designing Systems for Love, and Measuring What We Truly Treasure) with this heartful educator here.
Mar 5, 2024 Networks Of Crafters Around The World Are Creating Crocheted Coral Reefs To Advocate For Climate Action Started by sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim in response to the effects of climate change, these crochete coral reefs are a work of grief and action, now supported by more than 25,000 crocheters worldwide. The initial project, called The Core Project, has traveled to the globe's most esteemed museums and galleries. “These crochet reefs are time-laden rejoinders to a culture of doom, quietly asserting … a message of hope. What can we humans do when we work together, not ignoring ecological problems?” share the artists. Read the full story here.
Mar 3, 2024 Volunteer Artist Feature: Rupali Bhuva Volunteer heARTist, Rupali Bhuva, regularly touches people with her art. In fact, ServiceSpace often receives notes from people asking how to purchase her work and offering appreciation. Like this recent note: I go to your site when I need replenishment or a dose of awe. I am so grateful for your work. For some time, I have been trying to see if the artwork next to each reading under the Awakin archives is available for purchase. There has not been even one that has not moved me. ServiceSpace projects, like Awakin Readings, are entirely volunteer-run efforts. And in that spirit, everything is offered as a gift. Rupali doesn't really identify with her art; she says the art "happens through her". Read more about this incredible artist here.
Feb 29, 2024 "Turning Wake": We Are Made of Ancient Songs Have you heard Ayla Nereo's song "Turning Wake"? This heart-stirring song made its debut during a recent Laddership Pod reunion call -- and was set to a stunning video (created by pod volunteers!) As the lyrics share, "there are ones who’ll keep us sleeping, and there are ones who bring the dawn ... we are born of dust and silence, we are made of ancient songs". Watch this special video of here.
Feb 29, 2024 A friend of ServiceSpace, Carmen Posada Monroy, has teamed up with Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) on a guide for journalists, communicators, foodies, influencers, and anyone sharing information related to food, gastronomy, nutrition, and related topics. The guide offers an innovative way of telling the story of food systems to create new realities that transform our relationship with food. Virtual workshops will be held in English and Spanish to share information about the new guide. The workshops will be held on March 6 (Spanish) and March 11 (English). Check out the invitational flyer below and then register on their site. P.S. More exciting news: Karma Kitchen Madrid coming soon! Carmen and the CoFSA community in Madrid will be following in the footsteps of Karma Kitchen in Vienna.
Feb 28, 2024 With a Soft Breath: How My Daughter Rides Horses "I've begun to teach my 3.5 year old daughter to ride horses on her own ... Both the horses and being a parent are teaching me again and again ... that you can choose a different way than you were taught/shown/had done to you" In this beautiful article, originally written as part of a Laddership Pod, Greta Matos describes a shift from a power-over paradigm to a power-with paradigm. Read the full story here.
Feb 20, 2024 This Startup Will Pick Up Your Hard-to-recycle Waste In 2018, while trying to identify how to responsibly dispose of items that are hard to recycle, Ryan Metzger realized there must be many other people experiencing the same challenge. He started a "recycling carpool" in his neighborhood in Seattle -- now it's grown into a startup reaching more than 90,000 people across seven states! Read the full story here.
Feb 19, 2024 KarunaNews: He Lost 29 Years Of Memories But Kept Playing His Trombone
Feb 19, 2024 At one of the most premiere business schools in India, IIM (Ranchi), they hosted a "Soul Carnival", with food, games and joy of being related. But with a twist. Here's more from their press release: However, what sets this year's Soul Carnival apart is reliance on the Trust Economy model – a radical yet resonant approach where transactions at stalls are not fixed by price tags but are left to the discretion and generosity of patrons; the birth of this revolutionary concept was inspired by ServiceSpace movement of kindness and generosity happening globally. For a deeper dive into various models, check out this article on spectrum of reciprocity (and many practical examples and experiments).
Feb 15, 2024 Retreats and circles are in the air! In the very location of Gandhi 3.0 retreat, Drishti Foundation just hosted a retreat with various NGO founders, most of whom our foundation has been supporting for the last 30 years. Apart from sharing stories, some technical best practices around the increasingly complex landscape in India, and building synergy among each other -- there were also the "Moved By Love" ripples of hand-made name tags, rangoli mandalas, peace walk, interfaith prayers and so much more! Here's the retreat participants building those trademark hearts with each other, two days ago: Speaking of rangolis and mandalas, here was a photo shared on a volunteer thread of another gathering that Parag, Anamika, N2 and many others from our Surat volunteers hosted: And of course, in two weeks, Meghna and a gang of 20 volunteers will be hosting yet another retreat -- and word on the street is that people from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Dubai are trying to join the waitlisted gathering! In the application, one of the questions is about the background - - and it's touching to see the diversity of backgrounds that are drawn to these shared values, like this: I am currently 22 years old and have been working for the past 7 years. I started as a delivery boy and have now worked my way up to a staff position. It has been an incredible journey, and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Currently, I am preparing for my 12th grade exams which will end on March 6th. My aspiration is to become an engineer one day. Thank you, all, for all the open-source inspiration -- and the murmurations we took home on Monday! :)