Chris Corrigan reminded me again today that a gift is something we honor by use; it is not something we pay back but pay forward.

If you want to accelerate your practice, spend 4 hours in delays on top of 4 hours of travel. The opportunities for practicing peace, gratitude, yoga, and breathing are endless.

The fullness of gratefulness is the openness to surprise. / David Steindl-Rast

Everyone has the capacity to dream. For some, it is an active source of their energy and engagement with their communities and networks. For others, it is a potential made unavailable because of fear, pessimism, cynicism, or being stuck in a life of chronic or acute opposition. The hope of any community is in those who dream.

We make great efforts to “be connected” to other people. We use common agendas, commitments, humor, technology, and interactions.

Authentic connection comes at a heart level - a level of being rather than doing or having. No matter what we have or do, authentic connection exists only at the level of our being connected. This happens through qualities of being like compassion, respect, love, and gratitude.

We are never separate from our life’s source. It is a constant field of infinite energy organized by universal consciousness. We draw power from source to the degree that we stay conscious of its spacious abundance. Everything we include in our daily “practice” that we experience as joy is our connection to life source. Suffering is the clearest indicator we feel separate from our life’s source; our joy is the clearest indicator we are drawing from it.

When we commit ourselves to the happiness of others, non-attached (read:liberating) commitment means not defining the form, conditions, context, or impact of their happiness. It is simply a liberating commitment to their happiness - whatever the form, conditions, context, or impact.

Yesterday I weaved my way in and out of the blogger tour of top Cleveland free wi-fi spots. George and Valdis did a live blogumentary as the day unfolded in a serendipitous adventure of blogging and conversations. It was interesting how opening the space in multiple locations creates the sense of possibility that the whole city could be as connected as it wants to be. The whole experience was a reminder of our deep capacity for connectness and the limitless possibilities if we only give ourselves the freedom to see them.

How can we as a community empower ourselves to share responsibility for the kind of community we want now to create? What’s the source of our power?

Somewhere in your community or organization, groups of people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change, find these areas of positive deviance and fan their flames.

Jerry Sternin and Richard Pascale