Love is six parts giving and one part talk

Rachel Beckwith was nine years old when she died from injuries sustained in a car accident. You can read more about her story here.

Rachel’s fundraiser gathered over $1,186,208 for clean water projects – $1,185,988 after her death. Rachel’s original goal was $300. However, she had only raised $220 when she was alive. Rachel’s story touches my soul. Her story gives me hope about people and especially about children. Rachel’s story reminds us that we are connected at deep levels – that we do care about each other.

But I am also saddened that it takes the heart-breaking death of a nine year old to take us to that depth where we do care for each other. We all need to get to that place in our hearts without great tragedies. This concern brings me to Nisha Varghese.

Nisha is a 20 year old South African woman who was born with Cerebral Palsy. She can’t walk and she only has the use of one arm. But Nisha blogs every day. She’s blogging, most of all, to raise money for clean water projects. I’ve mentioned Nisha before in a previous blog post.

I came to know about Nisha through my friend Stan Faryna. He has donated hundreds of dollars to Nisha’s project. You can see his donations in the list of donations at the bottom of Nisha’s fundraising page. Stan has tweeted about Nisha’s project almost daily for many months and he shared her story with many people. He also encourages Nisha in comments on her blog.

I encourage you to follow Stan’s example. I’m asking you to do ALL three things:

1. Donate at least $5 to Nisha’s Clean Water Project.
2. Tweet or post about Nisha’s Water Project once per day for 30 days.
3. Encourage Nisha with a comment on her blog once per week for four weeks.

You will heal your soul if you do this. You will heal all of our souls if you join me in this campaign of selfless giving and love.

I imagine Rachel looking down from heaven and asking each of us to help Nisha. I imagine Rachel is cheering for Nisha. She’s saying, “Go girl, go. You can make a difference. You can change the world for the better.”

Nisha is a wonderful and kind young lady. She makes me laugh and smile. Her courage to make a difference inspires me. In the face of her physical challenges, she reminds us why we are here and how much we can do. She is a servant leader.

Nisha needs $1,901 to reach her goal of $6,500. Together, we can carry her across the finish line and the extra mile. I have over 6,000 followers on Twitter and over 600 friends on Facebook. If 10 percent of them have a soul and heart, we will directly bring over $3,300 to Nisha’s Clean Water Project. And if 10 percent of the friends and followers of our friends and followers join us, I can see us getting Nisha’s Water Project to $100,000 in no time. That will make a big difference!

Nisha has no idea I’ve written this blog. On Monday, when she comes back online, I would love to see her goal reached. Will you join me?

You can give to Nisha’s Clean Water Project at
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/nisha-varghese/nishavarghese

You can also find out more about Nisha here.

Janet, Richard, Stacey, Gini, Lisa, Aaron, and Carolyn , please help me to help Nisha. Everyone else too! Please help me to help Nisha!

God Bless us, every one!

Bonnie Squires

Would you like to read my other posts?

1. Love doesn’t have to cost anything

2. Laugh, Love, and Blogging #Triberr

3. Are you wonderful people?

4. Can love move as fast as technology?

5. @bonnie67 has love enough for the whole world

I normally recommend blog posts by my friends. That’s what friends do. But I’m not well. It was difficult for me to make this post. I hope you can forgive me for not making the links. I promise to list your blog posts and links when I am feeling better.

Love doesn’t have to cost anything

Stan Faryna and I were chatting on the Facebook chatbox about ideas for blog posts. I suggested a blog post about things we could do for others with out using a lot of money. Money is tight for a lot of people these days. But that doesn’t mean the love has to stop. Stan said it was a great idea, but he asked me not to mention him in this blog post. He felt that me mentioning him in almost every blog post might be trying on all my other friends. “Oh hush,” I said!

The men and women that perform public service often go out of their way and take out of their own time to serve the public. Yes, there’s bad apples out there, but I personally know government workers that often go out of their way to do the job right. They usually don’t get much thanks for it either – as if going out of their way was in the job description. So here’s some ways you can give them love and thanks.

(1) The mailman (or woman) doesn’t get the same welcome and thank you that they used to get. During the winter, we used to give him or her, a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate when they came by the house. In the summer time, we had a cold drink waiting for them – water or ice tea. Things are different now, but you can still be waiting for them with a hot drink in a styro-foam cup. Or a bottle of water.

(2) Likewise, the trash man doesn’t get a lot of appreciation. They come early in the morning. Around the holidays, you can tape a five dollar bill to the trash can with a note saying, Thank you and God Bless!

(3) If you have frequent business with government office workers, bring flowers and candy and remind them that you know it’s not government that’s doing it’s job, it’s them. It’s people – it’s them that solve your problems, answer your questions, and make it all work. The flowers and candy don’t have to be the most expensive – the intention counts.

(4) If you see a man and woman in U.S. military uniform, thank them for their service. Give them a handshake, hug, or say, God bless you. Do it with a smile and mean it. It will touch their heart.

The elderly remind us that we don’t live forever. They remind us we’re not always going to be as strong or fast as we used to be. In their humility, they share their humility with us. They also give us an opportunity to share our kindness and empathy with them.

(5) When you’re in line at the cashier of your grocery store and you find yourself behind an elderly person, offer to help them unload their cart or basket. Propose it to them with a kind smile. Be gentle, gracious, and patient whether or not they accept your help.

(6) You might also offer to help them load their groceries into their car – if the store does not have someone there to load cars. Make your offer of kindness in front of everyone so that the elderly person can be sure that your intentions are to help them – not to take advantage of them.

(7) Bring good books and interesting magazines to a senior care facility near you. Bring them that great science fiction novel or romance that you just told all your friends about. Don’t bring them a book you didn’t like and don’t bring them a magazine that is many years old. Like you, they are curious about what is happening in the world right now.

Our friends that we make online can be some of the best friends ever. We share our troubles and joys with them. My online friends encourage and support me each in their own way, but often with a lot more attention and commitment than my offline friends.

But I know that sometimes they need me and they are embarrassed to ask. And it’s not like I’m going to know what’s always happening to them because I’m not showing up unexpectedly at their front door when I haven’t heard from them in a few days.

(8) Try to remember you’re in a real relationship with a real person who needs to often hear things from you like Good Morning, Good Night, How are you?, I’m Praying for You, Happy Birthday, I miss you, I appreciate you, etc.

(9) On special occasions such as their birthday or even on Christmas, send your dearest online friends a small token of your friendship. Like a kitchen magnet from where you live. Or a postcard. It will help them know that they are not alone in the physical world. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be a small note saying, Thank you for being my friend!

(10) Share your story with your online friends. Let them know the authentic you. Recently, Stan made a podcast about how he feels different and alone at times because of the things that happened in his life. I felt that I came to a better understanding, deeper empathy, and thankfulness for him. Go and listen to it here. Though I have known him for four years, his recent podcasts have made him more dear, real, and inspiring to my heart.

There’s lot of things you can do without spending a dollar. You don’t need a million dollars to start doing good. You don’t even need a nickel. If you can smile, shake a hand, or hold someone. If you can say, Thank you, I love you, or I’m sorry. Or like Nisha Varghese says, if you can make them feel you see them, you hear them, and that they are real to you. Nisha is a wonderful young lady.

I have more things on my list. I’ll be sharing them with you later. But I think what I described here is going to get you thinking.

What things can you do to make sure that others feel the love? Please share them with us in the comments below.

Yours truly,

Bonnie Squires
@bonnie67

Would you like to read my other posts?

Laugh, Love, and Blogging #Triberr

Are you wonderful people?

Can love move as fast as technology?

@bonnie67 has love enough for the whole world

I recommend blog posts by my friends. That’s what friends do.

Here’s recent posts that I liked:

1. No Charge For Love by Richard Bejah

2. Launching #NicheAmnesty.TV: A Fun Way To Start Your Weekend by Stacey Herbert

3. Leadership When All Hell is Breaking Loose by Aaron Biebert

4. Alaska Chick Rule #24, Don’t Wait For The Rain To Stop by Amber Lee

5. Confessions of a Freak, Geek and Misfit by Stan Faryna

6. Mr. Rebates – Your New Best Friend! All Star Edition by Carolyn Nicander Mohr

7. Friday… Is a Wishing Well… Kinda Day… by Lisa Faeth

8. Billy the Exterminator is a Branding Genius by Erica Mallison

9. Are You Really Prepared? by Frank Jennings

10. What’s Your Ikigai? by Lori Gosselin

11. Lean On Me by Bill Dorman

12. Gaming, the Economy, and Riots by Gini Dietrich

Laugh, Love, and Blogging #Triberr

Laugh, Love, and Blogging

Triberr is a community-building app that allows bloggers to build micro-communities (tribes) of like-minded bloggers who share each other’s content with their individual audiences through their Twitter streams. Let’s say there are seven members with an average of 1000 followers each. Through Triberr, a link to a new blog post will automagically tweet to all the followers of all seven members. This increases the reach of a member’s content with 1000 followers to 7000 followers.

Some people call Triberr a reach multiplier. My original reach was about 6,000 before I joined Triberr. Now my reach is 22,000. My friend Stan Faryna has 1,700 followers on Twitter, but his reach through Triberr is 839,000. Of course, he is a member of many tribes. He’s also a great writer and he’s intelligent. Stan writes about everything. So the multiplication of your reach will be determined by the merit of your writing, who you get to know, the tribes you make, and the tribes you get invited to join.

Triberr was created by Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo. It’s an invitation-only system. If you’d like an invite, please leave a comment with your email, the URL of your blog, and the topics you blog about. Yes, you have to have a blog to join Triberr. But it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or you are one of the big bloggers like Danny Brown. Anyone can use Triberr to build a stronger community around their blog and social media practice.

I also want to say that the Triberr community is unlike any other online community. Triberr people are wonderful people. They help each other with advice, ideas, and moral support. More often than not, Triberr people take time out of their busy lives to share their knowledge, insights, and hearts with other Triberr members. You don’t even have to be in the same tribe. You just have to be in Triberr.

Christian Hollingsworth (MR Smiley Face to me) is one of the Triberrati. I just love his pictures. He’s always smiling. Janet Callaway is always willing to help out some one and give encouragement. Veronica Schultz is so wonderful and helpful. Janet, Veronica, and Christian are good listeners too.

Aaron Biebert is a successful businessman, but he really understands the importance of family. He’s very easy to approach and very helpful. Stan Faryna is an online strategist and entrepreneur, is a generous connector and commentor. Stacey Herbert is a loving, free spirit blogging from Bali. She’s helping the Triberr community to get to know each other through her latest project, #NicheAmnesty.TV.

There’s lots of great people in the Triberrati. Dino Dogan, the co-founder of Triberr, is one of the funniest bloggers ever. There’s so many wonderful people that I will have to write many blog posts about them all. So come back and see who else I write about and the big things they are doing in the blogosphere.

Until my next post, check out Triberr. If you are already in Triberr, get to know more people, reach out to the Triberrati. The best way to do that is to visit the blogs of the Triberrati and leave comments. I guarantee you that if you read seven to ten blog posts by the people I wrote about today and you leave a sincere and kind comment on each and every blog post, you will enter into the wonderful world of the triberrati just like that.

Yours truly,

Bonnie Squires
@bonnie67

Would you like to read my other posts?

Are you wonderful people?

Can love move as fast as technology?

@bonnie67 has love enough for the whole world

I recommend blog posts by my friends. That’s what friends do.

Here’s recent posts that I liked:

Launching #NicheAmnesty.TV: A Fun Way To Start Your Weekend by Stacey Herbert

Alaska Chick Rule #24, Don’t Wait For The Rain To Stop by Amber Lee

The Day The Blogosphere Stood Still by DIY Blogger

Growing Up in the Cupboard Under the Stairs by Marianne Worley

Discover The REAL Adrienne Smith #NicheAmnesty by Adrienne Smith

What is love? And Other Social Media DOHs by Stan Faryna

Online friends can be real friends by Carolyn Nicander Mohr

#NicheAmnesty Day: Odds & Ends About @ericamallison by Erica Mallison

Remember Who You Are by Betsy Cross

Say The Words That Choke You Up by Aaron Biebert

Hannah’s Story by Nisha Varghese

The 100,000th Tweet by Rob Cairns

Trust Dynamics of Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Triberr by Dino Dogan

(e)DUPS, the real-life CEO of Empire Avenue by Terri Nakamura