image by yogasanft

The Brooklyn Green Team celebrated their 1-year anniversary last month.  They threw a party with prizes and speeches read from a Blackberry (so as not to squander paper!), and unveiled their new Superheroes video. Here’s what else happened:

The “Yes We Can” volunteer challenge was unleashed!
Participants commit to donating 3 hours of your time in three months to an organization of your choice. I signed myself up, not knowing exactly where I would fill my three hours, but a few days later, a neighbor called me to help her plan her vegetable beds at a nearby neighborhood garden/bird sanctuary.  So that’s where I’ll be.  I have been a home gardener for years, but have not really shared what I know and my overall interest with other active gardeners.  I hope to contribute my gardening skills, learn new tricks, and meet new people at this community vegetable garden, where all the food grown is donated to a nearby soup kitchen.

I wrote a letter to my congressperson:
Solar One and Community Energy were on hand to guide residents on options for building solar systems in the city and supporting wind power through their utility bill with Con Edison.  In my letter I nudged my congressperson to support pro-solar state legislation that would make solar power a more widely available clean energy technology for New Yorkers to choose for their homes. 

“Dalai Lama Renaissance”
I went to The Rubin Museum for the first time Last Sunday to see “Dalai Lama Renaissance”. It was a thought provoking, breathtakingly beautiful documentary about a gathering of forty of the world’s most cutting edge thinkers with the Dalai Lama in India.  The event was filmed in 1999, but the movie was not released till sometime in the last few years.  These participants, called the Synthesis Group, all intended to create some kind of strategic plan for changing the world, for addressing poverty, the influx of Chinese consumer goods worldwide, global warming…actually these problems certainly still exist today, but it seems to me that our outlook has started to change from viewing them as problems to seeing them as unfinished projects, or topics of possibility.

Since the movie was filmed almost ten years ago, I think dominant thought is overall still the same, “we have to solve the world’s problems,” but more of us already know that the biggest obstacle to changing is to be willing to change ourselves.  I know this because I have observed for myself the biggest obstacle to my own change is the way I interpret my life, the life I’ve created thus far, and my own potential for growth.  Also, most dramatically through this site, reading about the personal development articles and activism challenges taken on my Megan, Uli, Rich, Stella, Sarah, and so many others of you out there,  I see how much change has already occurred within almost one year since this site has been launched.  And I’ve seen every person I mentioned create ripples of transformation with each life they’ve touched.

Starting with ourselves is what this film highlights, although after each of us can consciously push our egos out of the way when we come together collectively, then I do think that we can make straightforward, large scale decisions.  Five friends and I went to see this movie. I was especially inspired and softened by the love shown between the Dalai Lama and Brother Wayne Teasdale. Here’s how it positively impacted my small circle:

• My friend Jennifer said that her spiritual batteries were recharged as a result of watching the film.  She now plans to attend an upcoming talk by Susan Salzberg on The Science of Positivity, part of the Brainwave exhibit at The Rubin Museum.  Another friend, Siobhan ran off to an Oscar Party, but later admitted that she thought of the movie all throughout the rest of the evening.
• The movie brought to my attention the power of forgiveness.  The Dalai Lama harbors no resentment to China and they kicked him out of Tibet and killed thousands of Tibetans fifty years ago.
• I told my mother about the movie and we had a beautiful conversation about spiritual experiences.  She told me about a powerful presence of communion she felt a few years ago while at mass one Sunday.  I told her about my own spiritual experiences and gently asserted that my search for faith looks different from her Catholic religion, but is no less authentic.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” will be showing through this, Sunday March 1st. The last showing on Sunday will be introduced by the Dalai Lama’s representative in New York.  They are also showing their second annual Brainwave exhibit, an exploration into how mind and matter meet.