In the first few seconds of the pilot episode of Whip Jams, the viewer is taken on a kaleidoscopic tour through downtown Ann Arbor that feels almost foreign in 2021: windows down, sun splashing across laughing faces, music blasting. This is not a view one might associate with the current times, but in a world where human connection feels lost, comes a Youtube video series that aims to fuel a new kind of connectedness. Nadim Azzam is many things: creator, producer, marketer, promoter, and host of Whip Jams, to name a few. But before that, or perhaps beyond that, Azzam is a musician.
Posts filed under Issue #77
Bowenwork for Gentle Healing
I had been suffering from neck and shoulder pain for many years due to a car accident. Although weekly chiropractic and massage helped, my problems never fully resolved. Over the years I tried many healing modalities with no lasting relief until a friend suggested I try Bowenwork. I found a practitioner and gave it a try. Since I was used to vigorous massages, I was surprised with how little force was used with Bowenwork. After the second session, I started noticing some wonderful changes. Eventually, my neck and shoulder issues resolved, as well as other issues that I had not communicated to my practitioner.
Mutual Aid in Washtenaw County--Can the Pandemic Have a Silver Lining?
It’s likely that most Americans will remember the year 2020 as one of the worst in their lifetimes. But if we take a step back, we might find that the year also brought many inspiring reminders of the capacity of the human spirit to overcome adversity and lend comfort to strangers.
Ann Arbor's Little Free Libraries: The Book Sharing Movement Goes Big-Time
When Kathleen Wright, a beloved Ann Arbor elementary school teacher and self-confessed “bookaholic,” first heard about Little Free Libraries (LFLs) in 2014, she and her husband knew immediately that they wanted to install one outside their home on the Old West Side. “I thought it was one of the most marvelous ideas I had ever heard of,” said Kathleen.
Out of My Comfort Zone, Spring 2021, Susan Westhoff and David Hall
Crazy Wisdom Journal asked a number of leaders in southeastern Michigan’s conscious living community to reflect upon times in their lives that they’ve left their comfort zones to venture out in new ways. In the distant past or much more recently, we asked, what did you do, what inspired you, did it change you, inside or outside, big or little? Did you attend a new class, take an adventurous trip, go skydiving, stretch beyond a long entrenched boundary, start a new relationship or end an old one, take a leap, retire, join the Peace Corps, go on a night trek in the wilderness, or just do something way out of your ordinary?
Visual Journaling: Image and Word, a Journey to Self-expression
This quote is sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, who said, "A good sketch is better than a long speech." Creating a journal with images and words is a place to honor your experiences through exercises that expand your own process of describing your world and your distinct expression of it. It is a journey into the heart of self-expression, free from competition and comparison.
Tea Time With Peggy-- Tea--More than a drink!
Spring and summer happen to be my two favorite seasons. I enjoy spending time playing in the dirt. My herb and flower gardens are my happy places and I have been known to spend hours out in my garden rearranging plants to a better location and even mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, too much time in the sun results in a nice sunburn. I know of nothing more miserable in the summer than being burnt to a crisp. While sipping a nice, iced glass of sun tea doesn’t help you cool down the sting, the wet tea bags will.
Live Love--Share the Hearts
By Michael Oliver
As I embarked on my journey into 2020, I found my fellow human beings becoming increasingly angry, fearful, and distrustful of each other. I asked myself this question, “Is this who we really are?” It felt like the negative and dark energy hiding in the shadows finally found a doorway. So many triggers appeared, and they would consistently attempt to flip the switches of light, to darkness. At times it felt terribly dark and other times, it felt like light was returning. It is a battle that continues today, but is not a new battle; it is a different battle.
What is different about this battle, you may ask? Awareness! Yes, we are more aware of what was lurking in the darkness than we were in the past. Humans are waking up! And it is in that process of waking up that we are learning to acknowledge the ways of the past that have been damaging to our species and limiting our growth toward living a life of love and joy. For me, 2020 triggered a deep and self-reflective time. I kept pondering over what I could do to make life for humanity better, and I came up with the Share the Hearts Campaign.
The Share the Hearts Campaign was inspired by Dr. Kenneth McCulley who founded a human potential development program which included a poem titled I Live Love Every Moment of My Life. In that poem, Dr. McCulley’s primary message was to wake people up to the reality that we all come from the same source and as such, we are all brothers and sisters, one and the same. It was Dr. McCulley’s dream that all humans demonstrate, unconditionally, Living Love—performing acts of kindness for their fellow human beings. Motivated by the energy and effort of Dr. McCulley, our team wanted to build a campaign that would operationalize that message to the world.
Sharing a simple wooden heart can make a difference! Every act of kindness, thoughtfulness, caring, and copassion, is an act of living a life of love—as the Beatles once sang, “All We Need is Love.” True! What a difference love can make.
Mindtation, a small start-up company, is on a mission to help people find their paths of joy, because when people are living their joy, they live a life that is aligned with who they truly are, living in and experiencing positive synchronicities. We decided that we wanted to do something fun, yet meaningful, to engage people back into love consciousness and help them along with aligning with their true selves.
Read related article: Living From the Awakened Heart
Along with teaching the power of meditation, the breath, mindfulness, intuition and sound, we are initiating the Share the Hearts campaign to help spread loving kindness. Wondering how it works? Small packets of wooden hearts are purchased from our website and then you can give them to people you “catch” doing acts of loving kindness. In the packet, there is a heart and a card explaining the purpose of this event. Each one of us will be the eyes of the change we want to see. This act, this awareness, plants the seed of love and kindness into one’s consciousness—making it grow each time it is acknowledged within someone else. Each time a wooden heart is given for an act of kindness, it reinforces love and kindness within yourself (the giver) as well as expanding the consciousness of love in others (the receivers).
At the deepest level, we are all one and the same. As Peter Yarrow said, “There is only one river. There is only one sea. And it flows through you, and it flows through me. There is only one people. We are one and the same.” The kick-off for Mindtation’s Sharing the Hearts Campaign took place on April 9th, 2021. To kick-off the event, Mindtation presented a video providing an overview of what it means to live in joy and love—especially during stressful times and the many benefits that it can bring. The purpose of this campaign is to bring us back to loving kindness and mindfulness...bring us back to awareness of our own humanity.
Let’s re-learn how to respond to all situations with love. The goal is to put the intention of Living Love, our Truth, back into the world.
If you are interested in this campaign and would like to learn more, please visit Sharethehearts.com. A percentage of all heart package purchases will be donated to select charities.
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Kindness, Clarity, and Insight is a collection of talks that the Tibetan Buddhist Dalai Lama gave in the USA and Canada more than forty years ago. With this and later books, the Dalai Lama brought Tibetan Buddhism and the situation in Tibet into prominent international awareness; he went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.