Today I want to write about being present and manifesting community. This has been apart of my journey since my baptismal earlier this year. This yearning to be in the light during the darkest of times.
“You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality—Ubuntu—you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.” - Desmond Tutu
This week was bittersweet. Myself and Kyle stepped down as organizers of Austin Bitcoin Club. We knew last year when we started this ABC didn't belong to us. It belonged to the Austin community. We have been searching for people to take it over since January. We wanted to leave it on a solid foundation. We wanted to ensure the community, meetup space, funding and branding were all in place for it to flourish.
I N R E T R O S P E C T
We always worked to cultivate a generous quality about ABC. We truly believed built by the plebs for the plebs. The truth is people can read sincerity with a smile, a tone, a touch on the shoulder. We're talking about building altruistic love through and through. That requires belief in oneself and your community.
The Golden Rule is reciprocal because of its “give and take” intention. Reciprocity is created when one positive action generates another positive action and the cycle continues—a charitable word inspires a charitable action, which inspires another and yet another. Imagine how business would be changed if this concept of reciprocity were applied. Or, consider how family dynamics would improve and conflicts could be resolved more readily. And then there are the communities that would come together in neighborhoods where currently the majority are strangers to one another.
The real question is how do you manifest your community? The answer is simple. Be of service to bitcoiners. It requires nothing more than putting others before yourself. I helped Kyle (audio/video for a podcast) and Keyan (interview for stacker news) because both of them required help in one way or another. I was never looking for anything but friendship and a sense of community.
P R O O F O F W O R K
Everyone in your community has the opportunity to express themselves in different ways. No matter how small. They are still impactful and generous acts. This can be instilled in others by your actions. Leading by example is the way.
In serving, we choose to see ourselves and others as whole. We use our life experiences to serve others, and when we serve from the whole of who we are, we strengthen and grow. “Do not give from your abundance. I don’t want your money. Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they [those in need] need your hearts to love them." - Mother Teresa. Fixing, helping, and serving are all acts of being charitable in different ways. What is most important is to offer up compassion, a non-judgmental place of accepting people exactly where they are in life, not where you think they could or should be.
💯 Be the change in your community.
focusing my attention on the present moment, accepting it without judgement, whether good or bad
praying for gratitude, whether good or bad
acknowledging the goodness in my life