by Anne Campbell

In April, I shared this story with a group of about 200 people gathered at the Becoming a Household of God conference. We had all come together for an inspiring, invigorating, and enlightening two days with the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. We listened with fascination as Dean Lind took us on a journey of possibility as she unraveled the complexity and clarified the importance of piazza living. Her words and the example she has set in her own ministry at Trinity helped us to see more clearly how to create welcoming spaces in our minds, our lives, our churches and our communities. If we can commit to the discipline of living a piazza life, the positive transformation in the world around us could grow exponentially. But I am getting ahead of myself ... my story actually begins before we were immersed in two days of radical thinking with Tracey.

I have a confession to make. I am shamelessly addicted to Oprah. She does the most remarkable things. Oprah Winfrey lives her life by making intentional choices that allow her to do what scientist and educator Margaret Wheatley refers to as “walking out to walk on,” or leaving a particular situation or way of thinking behind to move on and do things that will help you make a difference. Oprah has mastered walking out to walk on over and over again. The seemingly simple initiative, Oprah’s Book Club, was a spark that set the literary world on fire. The notions of reading and book clubs are enjoying a renaissance in this country as a result of Oprah’s commitment to improving literacy. If you are acquainted at all with Oprah, you know that the list of how she has created change and made a difference is lengthy, but it was her last two endeavors, a book study of A New Earth and the reality TV show “The Big Give,” that converged with Tracey Lind’s teaching about piazza living that created a “perfect storm” in my life.

At the beginning of March, a unique online community or piazza was created by Oprah. Anyone, living anywhere in the world, was invited to join her in a free, 10-week online course with author Ekhart Tolle to explore the concepts in his book A New Earth. A record-breaking 800,000 people logged in to participate in live, interactive, 90-minute classes with Ekhart and Oprah on Monday nights to delve into Tolle’s book about how to awaken to your life’s purpose. About the same time, Oprah debuted a new reality TV show called the “Big Give.” Who else but Oprah could take the idea of stewardship and turn it into reality TV? The participants were given a sum of money each week and then challenged to give it away. The twist was that they had to find ways to make their money “bigger”—to think outside-of-the-box about how to involve others in making a difference for the recipients. Viewers were treated to watching incredible acts of generosity in every episode, as well as the creation of what I now see as piazza—safe, welcoming spaces that bring people together and promote positive interactions.

How does my own story weave into this tale? Oddly enough, through a windfall granted to many Americans by the U.S. government—the much anticipated tax rebate check. When my husband Mark and I received our letter, we immediately sat down and began composing a wish list. Our list, I’m sure, was like many others. A list of what things we could buy, what vacations we could take, or what bills we could pay. The list was not long or interesting; $1200 dollars didn’t stretch as far as we hoped. What we also discovered was that after spending $1200 we would still have things that we wanted to buy, vacations that we wanted to take, and bills that we needed to pay; there was no sense of long-term satisfaction or joy in spending the $1200 on ourselves. We needed to “walk out” on the idea of spending the rebate check on us and “walk on” to how we could use the money to help others. We asked ourselves a new question: What would our list look like if we decided to just give our money away? Our new list was long, exciting, and filled with an energy that radiated joy. And then another question: What if we invited other people to give their check away, too? Even a portion of a check would help us create our own “Big Give”—a group of people united behind a project to help make a difference.

After much deliberation, we selected one item from our list—finding a way to help Bound Together, the after-school tutoring and feeding program at All Saints’, Pontiac. We contacted Paula Zabalavicius, the director of the program, and asked what they needed. She had two answers: a safe and updated kitchen to prepare meals for the children and more tutors. Next we met with Arnold Miller, the senior warden at All Saints’, and he and other vestry and congregation members gave their enthusiastic endorsement of the kitchen project.

And so we have begun our own mission to create a piazza for the children of Bound Together. We have started tutoring every week and we are spreading the word about our Big Give opportunity. Our goal is to build a kitchen, inspire a community, and nurture the growing minds, bodies, and spirits of children.

We invite you to join us, by either donating to our project or by creating a project of your own. Our story is not about our particular choice but the new way of making choices for each of us.

In the words of Meg Wheatley, “Walk out to walk on. The future doesn’t happen by accident."

[Anne and Mark Campbell are members of St. Michael's, Cambridge Junction.]

Your COMMENTS (50 words or less)?

Your LETTER to the editor (50-350 words)

____________________________________

 COMMENTS:

____________________________________