Kindness and Friendship

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200 words, being right, community, compassion, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Fear, generosity, growing up, integrity, joy, kindness, Life's like that, living in the moment, love, Relationships, sacrifice

Sprinkle joy.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The act of spreading joy does not often come from a place of my own joy. In fact, every time I can recall my own joy, it’s been a deeply personal experience, felt by an audience of one – me.

The wondrous privilege of witnessing nature; a dragonfly landing on me with wings glistening in the sunlight when I was a child in Chateauguay, a hawk calling while soaring across a central BC sky, a spider’s web sparkling in the pre-dawn light of a full moon in Brown County Indiana, the lull of the ocean’s waves crashing against the shore and receding, crashing against the shore and receding in the Dominican Republic, and more profoundly moving of late in Calgary, dogs approaching me with the same trust and love they used to approach dad with.

My joy comes while living in the moment and is deeply personal.

Spreading joy often comes from a place of brokenness; cycles of dysfunction in relationships or, stubborn ways of thinking or being, when I finally reach out with forgiveness, when I decide to break the cycle to relieve someone else’s pain through kindness and friendship.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

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The Dance

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200 words, believe, compassion, courage, danger, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, enabling, Fear, growing up, happy, health, integrity, joy, kindness, living in the moment, love, mission, Purpose, sacrifice, world issues

How can we know the danger from the dance?

~ William Butler Yeats

How do you recognize the difference between what is good for you and bad for you? Does fun mean bad? Does safe mean good?

How do you balance security and risk? When is it best to tread carefully? When should you throw caution to the wind?

How do you evaluate your need and their need? When do you sacrifice yourself for the good of someone else? When do your sacrifices border enabling?

Living only for our own comfort is the worst kind of extravagance; and truly brings no satisfaction in the end. And a life of consistently compromising ourselves to accommodate the agendas of others only serves to annihilate us and the gifts we could share with the world.

Can we ever really know the danger from the dance? I don’t think we can. At least not until our decisions finally play themselves out. But a really good indicator that we’re making the right decision may be to question our motives for the choices we make.

Am I acting from a place of love or am I acting from a place of fear?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Having Enough

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200 words, debt, desires, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, enough, Fear, greed, human behaviour, humanity, joy, life, living within my means, love, needs, sacrifice, survive, wanting

There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

G.K. Chesterton

Have you ever thought about what drives us to have more? Why we need a more expensive, newer car, the latest gadget, a bigger house, more money? Does what we have not work? Does our survival depend on it? Or is it simply a matter of social status? Why is it so pressing that we keep up with the Joneses?

We humans are wired to survive. We need shelter. We need food. We need security from those who might harm us. And once we have those bases covered, we need to belong. We need to be needed and we need to know that we can count on others when we need them.

But when do our needs become frivolous? What marks the event when we’ve gone too far? When we must ‘have it’ just for the sake of ‘having it’? When we decide to live outside of our means and willingly fall into debt? When do we cross that line of pure greed that sacrifices our fellow (wo)man’s ability to survive?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Easy to Start, Hard to Stop

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200 words, celebrate, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, entrepreneur, Fundraising, generosity, hard work, learning, listen, mission, Purpose, sacrifice, share knowledge, tenacity, The Other Bottom Line, vision

To succeed, you need to be easy to start and hard to stop. ~ unattributed

It’s been one year since I started The Other Bottom Line. And in that time, I’ve:

• provided one organization with their fund development history and 3-5 year strategy.
• worked with another organization as a bum-in-a-seat employee.
• facilitated the process to find a sponsor for, and drafted a gift agreement for another.
• helped another consulting company conduct searches for two non-profits.

The in-between times haven’t always been easy. I’ve had my hopes dashed a few times. I’ve spent some time playing the ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ game. I’ve been disheartened.

When I have wanted to give up, I kept going by:

• Documenting processes and accomplishments; referring to them often.
• Doing the things I vehemently didn’t want to do; moving them to the top of the list.
• Sacrificing the fluffy things. You’d be amazed how much you don’t really need.
• Being generous. Sharing knowledge and expertise.
• Celebrating the wins. Learning from the losses, then moving past them.
• Being open. Asking questions. Listening to others who have been there. 

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

How do you ensure that you’re easy to start and hard to stop?