HOPE IN THE NEW YEAR
There is a public benefit, non-profit organization in California called IF. It is made up of people “seeking hopeful alternatives to the violence, greed and destructiveness of our world.” This group has worked together for over 30 years supporting people who are working to build that better world. To quote from founder, Bill Cane:
"We began to connect with circles of people who were giving life and hope to each other—and hope to us! We have been taught that the past and the present create the future—that trends and statistical projections tell us where the world is going. But that simply is not true. The future is created by people who go against trends and projections and begin to form creative circles—by people who begin to live out a new story before that story becomes history."IF publishes a small magazine called Integrities which states:
“Integrity” is usually pictured as personal. “That person has integrity,” we say, meaning that he or she has values and lives according to them despite the costs involved. But for some people, integrity has grown beyond the personal to include the trees and the oceans, the way nations relate to each other, and the very fabric of life on earth. Such people feel overwhelmed and lonely at times, but they are the ones who are capable of sowing seeds for an integral culture. Their work is done in a cloud of uncertainty and often without institutional support or approval. Our purpose is simple. We wish to further the sense of integrities which is taking shape in our time, and we wish to communicate the stories of people who are struggling to live their lives in an integral fashion. ~ Bill Cane
Each time Integrities arrives I read it from cover to cover. Its pages offer inspiration, hope for the future, and a renewed sense that not only can something be done to improve our world, but something is being done. Give this gift of encouragement to yourself and others. You may subscribe to Integrities for $15 per year through their website at: IF.org . Three or more gift subscriptions cost only $10 each. Donations in excess of that amount are tax-deductible and will help IF's efforts to:
- provide land for houses for poor families in Guatemala
- support women's soup kitchens in Peru
- collaborate with IF/WHEN in supporting low income housing, living wage initiative and human rights locally
- assist social work programs in Peru
- give a voice to grass roots leaders who speak for the poor of the world
- support Phil McManus' crucial work thorughout Latin America
- facilitate networks of ecology, justice and peace.
May 2008 be a year of action - of looking within and reaching out - to make our world a place where all people have access to food for the body and for the soul; where peace and justice take precedence over greed; and where values are an illustration of the way we live, not weapons used against those who think differently. May 2008 be the first year of the rest of our lives.