Beach Walk 716 – Volunteering to Vocation

November 12, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

More and more brave souls are leaving their “known worlds” for life as an adventure, the kind without a job for a safety net. Decades ago the book appeared, Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow that really knocked loose some hard-formed notions. Still, only one generation has grown up with that message, so it has barely made a dent in our global consciousness. Some people are using volunteering as a step in that direction. Such is the story of my friend BJ Wishinsky who is now at Anita Borg Institute and also Joe Philipson the photographer who is helping to define a whole new sector: social media photographer.

I’d also to thank the many volunteers who helped on Podcamp Hawaii. Judi Clark was both the WordCamp wrangler and the one who helped me track and acknowledge the many volunteers on that event. Kyle Nishioka was the tech and venue manage and did a wonderful job working with our many vendors. Shane Robinson aka Secret Cameraman built the website and set up all of the live streaming, plus created a very cool desktop application that allowed attendees to fill out evaluations on the spot while watching the live stream or following the Twitter stream!

Update: Twitter friend @carakitty also got a job at a Vet office after volunteering at the animal shelter.

Hawaiian Word:
ʻAʻa; volunteer

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Beach Walk 276 – Trust or Faith

November 26, 2006 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Trust. It’s different from faith, in my mind.

I like to use my understanding and experience of trust to relieve stress. As Joe mentioned in a comment yesterday, past history usually shows that despite our many worries, “the job eventually gets done.” So trust is based on having experience that we can use to be more conscious, and more relaxed, in this moment.

Faith? That’s often associated with “blind.” Much harder! Less logical. Calming for some, but stressful to others.

The crab we were watching had lots of trust that s/he could run dashing into the waves, knowing that s/he could bury in the sand or ride the surf, and still be just fine. That trust comes from experience and can feed the rational mind.

Hawaiian words
Hilinaʻi: trust
kālele: to have faith

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Beach Walk 275 – Trust

November 25, 2006 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Trust. It’s simple, if not always easy.

So many times I’ve been at the back of the car with Lexi and Secret Cameraman, putting on the mic, and thinking (or saying out loud), “I have no idea what to talk about today.

Somehow, I get an idea by the time I make to 50-100 steps to the beach.

Often, the #2 tries to bring up the “end of the world scenario.” But I’ve learned to just smile and head to the sea for inspiration. So far, it’s working!

Hawaiian words
Hilinaʻi: trust

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