The month of May joyfully reminds us of the rebirth of nature. In acknowledgment, we celebrate Mother’s Day – honoring our birth mothers, and ultimately our spiritual mothers.

Symbolizing the greater gifts of the earth as Mother to all living things, we dedicate one day to recognizing our origins by honoring she who gave us life, and the earth which sustains our life. This month, take a look at your own walk on the planet, and see the many different forces which give birth to your potential.

Safe and secure
From the moment of conception to birth, our life depends on our mother for development. Not only do we grow in the biological sense, but Mother sets the precedent for her role as nurturer and protector. We flourish at an alarming rate of cell duplication and soon, enter the world as a complete physical being. We take for granted Mother is there for us, tending to our basic human infant needs and offering love and support for our emotional growth, as well. Mother taught us to adapt and improvise, demonstrating overcoming obstacles and making way for better things.

Mother Earth, as we experience her, always existed. From the day of our birth to our last day, the constancy of our world never waivers. We depend on gravity and the tides, sunrises and sunsets as the natural and normal courses of each day. We go through each day silently grateful for such support, and if something shakes our foundation, Mother Earth heals herself rather quickly, or she changes entirely in response to the occasion, usually producing a shift greater in magnificence than what suffered the loss.

Direction
Savvy mothers allowed us to make mistakes. While the lessons often eluded us, Mother pointed out that we learn from errors as well as successes. In short, our Mothers provided a sense of direction as well as buoyancy on the rough waters of life. We value her opinion, her steadfastness and her willingness to navigate while we steer the ship ourselves. While patient or not with our explorations, Mother helps us to set goals ourselves while giving us the space to change course and consider different directions.

North and South, East and West, Mother Earth grounds us in geography and geology. We learn our limitations in conquering mountains, rough waters and ocean depths, yet the challenge remains to find an inside passage which best suits our goals. Encountering the inevitable heights of difficulties, or diving deeply into despair, Mother Earth stands unmoved by our machinations and simply “is.” With so much to see and explore, we uncover parts of ourselves as depicted in earthly landscapes. The patient giant, Earth gives us unending opportunity to make mistakes and try again. When our direction becomes clear with all obstacles removed, we advance to even higher ground of who we truly are in the wind of our achievement; we transform into a spiritual being even better than before!

Birth to potential
At the time of birth, no one, including Mother, knew our future. Perhaps her newest bundle of joy would grow to cure cancer, write a symphony or free a nation. Rarely would Mother desire anything negative for her baby. Doing her best with her given conditions and circumstances, Mother nurtured, loved and taught us to develop and pursue our dreams. She provided what loving support possible and released her umbilical hold on our sovereign consciousness so we could venture into the world to experience and achieve our finest potential.

Our Earth Mother provides us with soil to grow our food, oceans and animals to harvest for our nourishment. Learning from her and from one another, we make our way through life by discovering new edible food or methods to improve our chances in hunting and gathering. Mother Earth provides us with a canvas by meeting all our basic needs and freeing us to explore what we do with the palette of pure potential.

Birth to ourselves
As an infant – and more importantly as an adult – we exist as pure potential. As we age, we learn and acquire cynicism and doubt, and many times long to revert back to a womb of protection to shield us from the hazards of the rocky life we befell. When we separate from mother, in the physical and emotional sense, we realize our glory as an autonomous individual and discover the greatness within us. Giving thanks to Mother for all she provided, especially life itself, we expand our horizons and explore possibilities separate from her.

Mother Earth, too, gave birth to man’s potential. In space exploration, we separated from the earth and atmosphere to explore the unknown, moving further and further away. Like a child whose distance-radius expands with confidence, our daring missions away from Earth grow larger with each effort. And, like the child who returns to mother, we return to the Earth, compelled by the need for grounding and the pull of gravitational force. When reunited, we share our discoveries with our fellow travelers in the hopes that one day they, too, reach far only to find themselves.

We give thanks to our Mothers and to Mother Earth for nurturing and sustaining us throughout our lifetime. Understanding that direction and guidance give way to discovering our own path, we strive to make the most of our talents and gifts. In separating from the gravitational pull of Mother Earth and the loving connection from Mother, we realize our individuality creates our potential. This month we may share flowers or a meal with Mother, giving her gifts of Earth itself, for they are one, as are we all.

Marlene Buffa

Taking a quiet sideways glance at life, Marlene offers insight through her words from experiences. A student of new-thought teachings, Marlene finds practical spirituality around every corner and seeks wisdom through observation of life’s inter-relationships. Sometimes playful, sometimes poignant, always thought-provoking, her writing inspires readers in meaningful ways.
www.wordsofmind.com

World Care raises $1 million for Haiti; delivers 133,090 pounds of resources

The January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicenter near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. By February 12, an estimated 3,000,000 people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reports that between 217,000 and 230,000 people had died, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless. They estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

Annie Loyd and Jodi Powers, founders of One Planet magazine, interviewed Krista Kinnard, project manager for World Care, a humanitarian relief organization located in Tucson, Arizona.

We’ve been to World Care and know how big and busy it is on a normal day! Describe World Care after the earthquake.

As soon as the earthquake hit, World Care went into emergency relief mode. Our doors were open for four straight weeks and we never had a dull moment. Volunteers were coming into help. People started bringing in donations of money, hygiene products, first aid, food, blankets — anything and everything that can be used in Haiti.

We didn’t even ask people to start donating. I walked in the day after the earthquake to do my internship here and the hallways in World Care’s 40,000-SF building were flooded with donations.

World Care Founder Lisa Hopper has great contacts with the media and the media were here and Lisa started making public service announcements, identifying how people could help and what the best items were to donate. World Care had several different events. One was that we stuffed four Sun Tran buses with donations.

The Tucson community’s response to help was just incredible.

How was World Care’s material distributed?

World Care is not a distribution organization, we’re a supplier. We connect with other organizations like ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) and IRD (International Relief & Development), who have warehouses there and who have the capacity to go out in the community and distribute the food. World Care ensures that all the supplies we send are packaged properly and are labeled properly and are able to get to those organizations to be distributed in the most efficient manner possible.

A month after the earthquake, World Care representatives traveled to Haiti: Lisa Hopper, Krista Kinnard, videographer Holly Romero and Elise Harper. How did you get to Haiti?

We did not need special visas to go down there for a week. We had to go through the Dominican Republic because when we went, the airport wasn’t open to commercial flights. So we flew into the Dominican Republic in Santa Domingo, where we took a chartered helicopter into Port-au-Prince, which took 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The helicopter was the best way to get in and out of the country. I believe the airport is now open to a few small American Airlines flights. When we landed at the Port-au-Prince airport, we were greeted by an IRD representative whom we’d been talking to. We went down the street to the United Nations on-site coordination base, which is where the UN sets up their camp with all their people as well as other organizations that were there like small volunteers groups, medical teams, UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity. The UN camp kept track of everybody.

Lisa had to contact the UN camp before we arrived and let them know our names and job descriptions. Security is very tight as to who can get on the base and who can’t.

IRD had to buy warehouse space the day we arrived because they were getting so many supplies from organizations like World Care and they outgrew the space they were sharing with ADRA. Lisa and Holly went with IRD to check out the warehouse and figure how they’d be able to house all the supplies that their company was bringing into Haiti to distribute. Elise and I stayed and set up our tent right next to other organizations that had come to stay at the UN base.

How do you find warehouse space in Haiti?

Well, not every building is destroyed. There are some areas that were hit harder than others. There are some sections of town where every buildings has fallen down or is about to fall down. There are other sections of the town where the buildings are still stable. It’s a city of 3,000,000 people. It’s huge!

Had you ever experienced anything like this before?

No, I’ve traveled internationally to developing countries on my own. I went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I’ve done my own kind of projects, but I’ve never been part of a disaster relief effort.

What was it like to be part of the disaster relief effort in Haiti?

The part that was the hardest to see was definitely downtown. It’s a big city. It’s a poor city. Tall buildings like hotels, stores, and pharmacies were reduced to rubble. You could see the stories of buildings just stacked on top of each other. Or you’d drive by a building and you could see cracks all through it; and if you even touched the building wrong, it was going to fall. So many people have been displaced from their homes and were just walking around. When we were walking downtown, we found a crowd of people on this pile of rubble and they were pulling out bodies and no one asked them to do that. There were no public officials there. There are sites where public officials are trying to remove the rubble and pull out the bodies, but there are just so many sites. The people in Haiti know that every fallen building has people in it and they need to be taken out and buried. So we just came upon one of these groups of people who were pulling out bodies. We watched them take out two bodies. We found the ID card for one of the women with her picture and signature on it. It was just incredible to see what she looked like. She was a young woman, probably in her late 20s and she probably had just gone into the store to buy milk or something and she never came out. Her body was decaying and was completely severed.

What kind of impression did that leave with you? It was very, very humbling. Working for World Care has shown me that we are so lucky in the United States. Everything is destroyed in Haiti. It was a mess before the earthquake, but after the earthquake, what do you do? I kept asking myself, “What do you do when the wall next to you falls down and the ceiling starts to fall down around you? What do you?” “After something like that, how do you walk by a pile of rubble knowing your neighbor is under there? How do you do that? How do you keep living your life?” “How do you keep living after everything you have known your entire life is reduced to rubble?” That’s’ what the Haitian people keep on doing. It’s not easy for them. Many are walking around shell shocked. Did you experience stories of the Haitians’ resiliency and joy? I don’t speak French or Creole, but when we happened upon someone who spoke English, they showed us their house if it was nearby and the store they went to buy ice cream. They told us their story: where they were when the earthquake hit and what happened to their family. When they found out we were an aid organization, they said “Tank you so much for being here. What can we do to help out?” Their spirit is so strong!

Tell us about the orphanage.

We visited the orphanage that World Care has been supporting in Haiti for about six years. Fortunately this particular orphanage was not damaged. It is located in an area that was not affected as much by the earthquake. So, none of the orphans were injured. The building was still there and the kids still had a place to live. The people who run it talked about the hard time they were having getting food and how they were expecting to have more children, who lost their families in the quake, coming to the orphanage. The orphanage had two new children who lost their families in the earthquake.

The woman who runs the orphanage said, “You know, we’re doing the best we can with what we have and that’s what everyone’s doing here.”

A lot of the orphans were young children and I don’t think they could wrap their minds around what was happening. The kids were incredible. I walked in and within two seconds I had kids climbing all over me! They had come up with a very unique dance routine and they were showing us their dance. Some kids were playing music. They wanted to take pictures with us. It was very moving.

Does the orphanage adopt children out?

They do adopt children out. There are about 70 children there, mostly six to seven years old and a few others between 13-15.

The way the orphanage works is any child can go to the orphanage if they don’t have a family. The orphanage makes sure that all the children there complete their educations. They were explaining the education system in Haiti and you actually have to pay for it a lot of times and many families can’t afford that, but the orphanage makes sure that the children — whether they’re adopted out or stay there — get an education. When they enter the ‘real world’ they are prepared and have skills and an education to go with that.

We know that World Care got its start by focusing on medical supplies. What are the primary areas on which World Care focuses?

You’re right, Lisa did start World Care based on the medical mission she had done in Guatemala, but not only did she notice there was a huge lack of medical and health supplies, she also noticed there was a lack of school supplies, so she started Tools for Schools, which provides school packs for kids.

Tools for Schools deals entirely with education. Under that, we have our computer program where we have computer labs for schools locally and internationally. We provide thousands and thousands of school packs with backpacks, notebooks, pencils — supplies like that. If we receive requests for those items internationally, we will send them out.

We also have Tools for Health, which are medical supplies. World Care has built clinics all over the place, like in Syria and Iraq and we’ve even helped with clinics in Tucson. We’ve given to El Rio and La Fronterra, all of which deal with giving health care to people in need.

World Care also has a Freeloaner Program, which is a program where people borrow home medical equipment like wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, grabbers, and things like that: items that aren’t necessary covered by insurance and aren’t really needed for that long, so someone can come in and borrow a wheelchair for as long as they need it – for two months, two years or 10 years. And then, when they’re done with it, they bring it back.

Our Tools for Emergency Relief is our disaster relief component. Any time a natural disaster hits, World Care is there. World Care was there following the September 11 attacks. Where ever there are masses of people who are suddenly displaced from their homes or who are in need of any kind of emergency supply, World Care is there.

Tools for the Environment is part of our recycling program. All the donations that come into World Care’s doors are either re-used or recycled. Nothing is thrown away. If an item comes into World Care and it can’t be re-used, we will take it apart and recycle it. Anything that can be recycled or re-used, is recycled and re-used.

What can people do to support World Care?

Continue to donate, continue to support us. World Care is going to be in Haiti a long time. The rebuilding process is going to take so long, so we just need people to continue to donate supplies and money. It’s not fun to ask for money but it is so fundamental to be able to rebuild the community and buy the necessary resources.

Don’t put off to tomorrow when you can help so many today.

Check and credit cards are welcome.

Make checks payable to: World Care 3538 East Ellington Place Tucson, AZ 85713 (520) 514-1588 FAX (520) 514-1589

Golf Tournament is March 19

The Second Annual World Care Charity Golf Tournament is Friday, March 19 at the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa, starting at 8:30 a.m. A BBQ and silent auction/ raffle will follow the bestball tournament. Entry fees are $165 per person and $660 for foursomes. Contact Krista Kinnard at World Care for more information.

Hopper Raises $25 Million for Humanitarian Efforts

Lisa Hopper, the founder and CEO of World Care International Humanitarian Aid Organization, Adjunct lecturer at University of Arizona Honors College in International Studies and Social Entrepreneurism and is an Honorary Commander for the 355 Aerospace Medical Squadron at Davis Monthan Air Force Base – all based in Tucson, Arizona.

She was born on August 29, 1961 in Chicago. Desiring an affordable education, she joined the Women’s Army Corps at age 18 where she studied physics and radiological technology medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. She excelled at developing and applying concepts, organizing departments and systems, and teamwork. As a result of her strong skill set, she was quickly put into leadership positions.

After receiving a B.S. in physics and radiology administration from George Washington University, she was hired as the university hospital’s technical director. In this capacity, she procured five research grants, taught, traveled worldwide conducting assessments for a humanitarian medical organization, developed the computerized autopsy using advanced CT imagery on ancient mummies, and worked as a consultant for the Smithsonian Institute.

While doing medical needs assessments in worldwide communities, she saw not only a need for clinics and medical supplies, but also for basic school supplies. All the underserved communities lacked simple education staples, resulting in inadequately equipped schools functioning at a minimal level. Lisa realized that, without proper access to education, the people were not going to improve their situations. Additionally, it opened her eyes to similar problems in her own community. On return trips with the team, she began bringing small amounts of school supplies she gathered with donations from friends and family.

Later in her career, she became the manager of large radiology departments at both George Washington University Medical Center and then Tucson’s University Medical Center. In both instances, Lisa Hopper was appalled by the enormous amount of waste that was generated. After looking further into the problem, she discovered that many other businesses, schools, and individuals unnecessarily discard supplies that others need. This observation reminded her of her international experience in the disadvantaged communities.

By formalizing her previous distribution efforts, Lisa developed a new concept for a humanitarian organization and began collecting supplies in her garage. She believed that it was logical to recycle any viable resource and re-distribute it to those in need. This would create better opportunities for disadvantaged people and provide a needed environmental service — making use of supplies that, if not donated, would otherwise go to a landfill.

In 1997, she put all of her retirement savings into World Care and devoted herself full-time to developing the organization. Since its conception in 1994 and its non-profit corporate status in 1996, World Care has collected and redirected over 15,663,739 pounds of resources valued at over $25 million dollars to aid in humanitarian efforts worldwide. This has been accomplished with less than 3 percent of annual funds going to administration, making World Care one of the most efficient non-profit organizations in the country.

Lisa has received many awards including:
* National Points of Light Award, * YWCA Women on the Move, * Ernst and Young Award for Business Leadership, * J.C. Penny Company Golden Rule for Outstanding Service in Education, * Governors Pride in Arizona for Distinguished Community Achievement, * Karen McQuillan Award, * Corporate Volunteer Council’s Outstanding Volunteer Service, * Mexican Federal Congress International Humanitarian Relief, * Optimist International Achievement in Education, * Volunteer Center of Tucson World Class Volunteer, * Rotary Club of Guatemala Outstanding Recognition, * Tucson Citizen Volunteer Of The Year, * Dynamic Duo Award.

The peace that passes all understanding is what I strive for.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen stated many years ago that to have peace, one must be obedient to God.

Being obedient to God means that I am in constant communication with God, that my every action and thought and word is a prayer, that I love God as I love my neighbors and myself, that I know it is only with my heart that I see rightly, that my heart is the 21st century mind, and that God’s obedient ETIs (extraterrestrial intelligence) work with me every day to guide me in peace and love to contribute to radical social change for Planet Earth through Peace Exoconsciousness.

With peace and obedience comes healing-physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing. When I am in alignment with God, every cell in my body vibrates with peace. Every cell collaborates and communicates with each other for the good of the whole, for the good of my entire body, bathing me in precious frequencies from God. In the same way, when humanity is in alignment with God, every human vibrates with peace. Every human collaborates and communicates with each other for the good of the entire planet. Every human then telepaths to our ETIs that we desire to collaborate and communicate in peace with the purest energies in the universe, in the multiverses.
 
Peace allows me to communicate with God as I meditate, as I walk, as I ride my bike, as I write my book, as I talk with friends, as I research fundraising, as I do public speaking, as I grocery shop, as I prepare meals, as I cherish my children, as I love my husband.

Recently I started attending Catholic Mass again, and receiving the Eucharist. At the time of the priest’s consecration of the bread and wine, I feel the Oneness that Dr. Edgar Mitchell felt returning from his Apollo 14 walk on the moon. I realize that this quantum rapture is available to everyone, of every background, every belief, every walk of life. It occurs for me when I say yes to God. When the priest says “Peace be with you” and I answer “And also with you,” I continuously affirm my covenant with God. I affirm my dedication to peace, the peace that passes all understanding.

Story By Terri Donovan Mansfield

Terri Donovan Mansfield is an Ambassador of Peace, walking and flying on her path of peace that passes all understanding.

As co-founder of the inclusive and transpartisan Arizona Department of Peace Campaign, she is now the Executive Vice President of Fundraising in the Public Interest with Founder and President Dr. Suzanne Mendelssohn and Partner Dr. Rebecca Hardcastle. Mansfield and Hardcastle are peace exoconsciousness co-directors for Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell’s Quantrek, Inc. Mansfield is on the faculty of International Metaphysical University, teaching Peace Studies. Her first peace book will be published in 2010.

Have you ever asked the question, “What’s my purpose?” Did you get an answer that brought you pain, or one that brought you joy? I, myself, have experienced each type of answer when I’ve asked that question of my own life. The answer I received that brought me pain actually brought me that pain because I was asking the question without knowing that I could actually choose the answer for myself. It was only when I discovered that the choice was mine that I began recognizing just how joyful my life — and my interpretation of the answer to that question — could be.

I can remember being a very small child and asking of my life, “Why did I have to be born if this is the way my life has to be?” I began asking that question when I was about five, and I continued asking it right on into my teen and adult years. I was still asking that same question at the age of 34, at which time it was quite obvious to me that I was going to be dead at the hands of the man that I loved long before I could reach the age of 40, and I looked upon that certainty with a feeling of relief that I would soon be put out of my misery. I just thought that it was too bad that the manner of my death was probably going to be incredibly painful.

During the first 34 years of my life, when I would ask of the universe, “What is my purpose? Why am I here?” The answer I would get was always along the lines of, “You were put on this planet to suffer. You are not meant to be happy or do anything meaningful with your life, so don’t even bother to try.” And that was exactly how I lived my life — wishing I could accomplish something good, while not believing it was possible, so never even making an effort. I had no idea that I was creating my own results. I believed that my life hated me, and I lived those years hating both myself and my life.

Then one day, in the summer of my 34th year of just surviving a seemingly meaningless life, I made the discovery that I could choose another way of looking at life. I discovered that I was the only person on the planet who had any power to change the way my life was, and the only way I was going to be able to do that was going to have to be changing the way I looked at — and experienced — my life. I began making that change with one thought in particular. I let go of thinking, “I wish my life could be different. It’s too bad it can’t.” And began thinking, “There’s got to be a better way for me to live than this.” And along with that thought, I gave myself an incredibly powerful and profound gift, which was the willingness to believe that the thought could be true.

I stayed in that thought for several weeks, and I continued to be willing to believe it even though nothing changed in my experience of my life. And then, after about five weeks of just allowing myself to think it and believe it, my “better way” presented itself to me in the form of a program that I just “happened” to come across on television. In that program I discovered the power of personal choice and what being responsible for my own results, ugly as they seemed to be, could do for me.  In that program (Mary Manin Morrissey’s Building Your Dream), I discovered several tools that I thought I could use to improve my life. Little did I know that I would end up completely changing my whole life!

So, what does all this have to do with purpose? That experience happened 11 years ago, and I am now a very different person from who I was then. My life has expanded in incredible ways in all directions, and I have come to some conclusions regarding “purpose.” It has come to be my belief that I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I deliberately (yes, deliberately!) chose to be born into this particular life. I believe that every single painful and horrific thing I experienced as a child, teenager, and young adult were a part of me living my purpose. If it weren’t for those things I would never have been inspired to look for a better way or to grow as a person, and I wouldn’t be experiencing the joy-full life that I am living today.

I’ve been paying attention to this lately in the midst of what I’m experiencing right now (and some of it IS painful), and what I know is this: Every minute of every day I am living what I came into this life to live, and whether I suffer in it, or not, is completely up to me. Probably the biggest lesson I have learned is that I can live my purpose consciously, with the intention of learning the lessons that are inherent in whatever I happen to be experiencing and using what I learn to expand my own life and benefit the world.  Or I can live my Purpose unconsciously, wishing for my life to be different while at the same time continuously creating the same experiences over and over again. And the experience does not care one bit how many times it has to repeat itself before I’m willing to learn the lesson. And when I’ve learned the lesson, I’ll have a deeper knowing of my true purpose.

What would the world be like if we were to practice living consciously, asking the question of every experience, “What’s my purpose in this?” with the intention of finding anything and everything that we could use to expand our lives into the joy that is, I believe, the core purpose of every person on this planet?

Sandra Daly is a woman who took an incredibly painful history and transformed it into a teaching tool. She is the author of two books, Choose Your Universe and Pop Your Paradigm!, and she has created and presented various workshops and programs around the state of Arizona. It is her passion to assist people in recognizing (and neutralizing) the subconscious programming that keeps them “stuck.” She lives in Arizona and is a wife, mother, and grandmother.

By Sandra Daly