Tag Archive for 'Abundance'

Denver: June 9 Gathering – Mile High Passions & Collaborations w/ Jessica Bergthold

Wedding Photographers: hopefully they don’t get a lot of repeat business.

I kid … but seriously, when your livelihood is built on referrals & “hittin’ the bricks”—and in a time when the economy has people looking at spending less—you might think photography is a cutthroat profession, but not so in Colorado. The Mile High Photographers have been practicing an abundant form of professional collaboration for over a year.

“This is a group of photographers in the Denver area who strive to create a great network of gifted, talented and caring professionals working together for the gain of each individual and his/hers respective business.” —MHP Website

Mile High Photographers features monthly meetings with members presenting their expertise in photography, business, and the photography busines. They also organize photo shoots and professional workshops for members. What I most admire about their work is the collaboration I see among people doing what they love to do.

This month we bring you Jessica Bergthold to present the Mile High Photographers group, how it connects to people’s passions (not always photography), and how it positively affects the communities of photographers and Colorado businesses. (We love local business.)

Continue reading ‘Denver: June 9 Gathering – Mile High Passions & Collaborations w/ Jessica Bergthold’

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Free Screening of Food, Inc. Monday, May 18th

I hear tell from our friends at Roots for Change, who are working towards a sustainable food system in California by 2030, that there’s a free screening at the Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco of the documentary, Food, Inc., about the negative health and environmental health impacts of industrial agriculture. I’m going to check it out and hopefully further radicalize myself, if that’s possible. If that fails, I’m sure I’ll enjoy what appears to be a well made documentary.

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Denver: Abundance League gathering – “Spring Renewal” Tuesday, May 12th

The Abundance League meets this coming Tuesday, May 12th at Hooked on Colfax coffee house. Join us as we celebrate Spring’s renewal! Sow the seeds for your 2009 passions/projects, express what you need to enrichen your passions/projects, and offer your gifts to support the fruition of each other’s passions/projects. Of course, please bring some finger food to share and support Hooked on Colfax with a refreshing beverage purchase!

We start at 6:30 pm, and end by 9:30 pm, but you are always welcome to come and go at any time.

WHERE
Hooked on Colfax
(lower level meeting area)
3215 E Colfax Ave
Denver, CO 80206

AGENDA
6:30–7:00 pm — Mingle, eat, drink
7:00–8:00 pm — Member Announcements: Your passions, needs, and gifts
8:00 – 9:15 pm — Break, eat, mingle, exchange eupport and swap clothing!
9:15 – 9:30 pm — Final wrap up, clean up, clear out!

BRING

Yourself, friends, and food! This is a potluck, so please bring finger food to share if you can.

Business cards, handouts, flyers

Share: books, CDs, DVDs, seeds, or anything that you’d like to loan or gift at the meeting.  

QUESTIONS? Call Susan at 303-455-0852.

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Recipe For Street Corner Bliss

Social, food and culture adventurer Rachel Weidinger posted a recipe for a “happening,” for lack of a better term, she calls “Forty Margaritas on a taco safari.” I think this easily qualifies as grassroots social innovation. The video is such a tease, despite the weird angle (couldn’t fix it). I want to be there now!

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Is Abundance Right Thinking?

If the right hemisphere of our brains is all about the here-and-now, the “we,” and the unity that is all of us, is this where abundant thinking comes from? If the left hemisphere is about linearality, and the past and the future, what can we learn … or unlearn?

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neural anatomist who “got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one.” In this uplifting talk, she describes the process, including a feeling of oneness with the universe as the left hemisphere in her brain shut down. Listen to her talk at the  TED conference…

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

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10 Ways to Support a Sustainable Urban Food System through Politics and Participation in the Food Economy

by Jen Dalton, www.jendalton.com  &  www.gastronautsf.com

1. Start small and simple. Make things from scratch. Pick 3 things to do like stop eating packaged foods, prepare your own food and cut out meat eating once a week. Compost. Plant and grow your own herbs. Or, get clear on the origins of your favorite food (Do you eat burritos more than once a week? Or coffee? Sugar? Rice?) – where do the ingredients come from? How was it made? Harvested? Who harvests the ingredients and how is it processed? What’s the impact of your choice?

2. Share your passions with others. What about this opportunity for change do you love? Get curious about others and what they’re doing. Ask farmers how they prepare foods, talk to your friends about their favorite foods. Do you have a cultural tradition to share and keep alive?

3. Unite and create coalitions. Gather at tables. Start conversations about food, taste, traditions, people who grow food, what we eat and how it reflects who we are.

4. Vote with your fork. You have a responsibility as an eater to know what you’re eating, for your health and the health of the environment. You also have consumer choice and this is a powerful force. Money talks and you have an opportunity to have your voice heard every time you eat. Look in your refrigerator. Throw out everything that has more than five ingredients. And, anything with the #1 ingredient as high fructose corn syrup should be the first to go. Stop drinking soda and that would be huge. While you’re at it, do the same with your cleaning products. Continue reading ‘10 Ways to Support a Sustainable Urban Food System through Politics and Participation in the Food Economy’

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Divvy.com: Get the Most Out of Your Stuff

img-logo-divvy-about-timeIn a time when we need to save money, reduce our ecological footprint, and band together to make change, Divvy may be just what the doctor ordered.   Divvy.com helps people and communities to divide up use of various physical assets through a unique billing and asset scheduling system.   So for instance, you can use Divvy to schedule the use of conference rooms,  desks in a co-working space, a car, a snow blower, in fact, almost anything.  And if you want to charge for use, there’s a built in payment system.  The whole thing is pretty much self-service, so it doesn’t consume much time except at set up.  

I had the good fortune to do some work for founder Aaron Freed on the launch of Divvy.com (disclosure: I earned a small number of options for my work).  I got involved because I think that sharing our stuff will solve many problems at once.   And I see a new economy and culture emerging based on sharing that can help us enjoy life more and avert societal collapse.

Here’s my perspective.  And let me use the example of cars to illustrate.   Continue reading ‘Divvy.com: Get the Most Out of Your Stuff’

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Denver April Confluence: Todd Siler PhD & Metaphorming, a Process of Creativity & Innovation—Tue 4/14 @ Hooked on Colfax

Todd Siler, PhD

Todd Siler, PhD

For the April confluence I am excited to introduce Todd Siler, PhD who will be leading us in a process he calls Metaphorming. Todd has developed this over many years, working with people of all types & ages, from school children to top executives at Fortune 500 companies.

He tells us, “this interactive presentation will provide you with some key tools, methods, knowledge, and experiences for discovering and applying your creative potential in new ways … the Metaphorming process provides a global common language that enables people to conceptualize, visualize, express and present their ideas, viewpoints, knowledge, and experiences in ways that effectively communicate the essence and details of their thinking.”

—-IMPORTANT UPDATE AFTER THE BREAK—-

I was particularly pleased to read Todd’s goal for this exercise… Continue reading ‘Denver April Confluence: Todd Siler PhD & Metaphorming, a Process of Creativity & Innovation—Tue 4/14 @ Hooked on Colfax’

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Quick Thoughts on Money

A friend forwarded this quote to me, which rings true:

“Money is like an iron ring we’ve put through our noses. We’ve forgotten that we designed it, and it’s now leading us around. I think it’s time to figure out where we want to go – in my opinion toward sustainability and community – and then design a money system that gets us there.”

— Bernard Lietaer Interview with Yes! Magazine: Beyond Greed & Scarcity

This squares nicely with something I have been saying about systems in general: “the hand should shape the tool, and not the other way around.”

But let’s take that one step further and say this:

“The hand shapes the tool, the tool shapes the work, the work shapes the soul.”

And the soul … what does that shape? Please leave your comments; ask your friends, too.

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The Abundance League is now on Twitter!

If you use Twitter, you can follow us here at the Abundance League by following username abundanceleague.

You can also just go to http://twitter.com/abundanceleague »

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