James Williams, of Cezeta62 created “Momma” including a beautiful handmade frame.  He captures people in a unique and with a pop-culture kind of feel, that feels both modern and retro.

Plywood People:  What is One Love Generation?

Jennifer Lester: One Love Generation is a non-profit org empowering youth to inspire positive social change through art, service and awareness. We work with 50 local teens and countless professional artist mentors on projects that focus on a different idea or topic – from environmental to socio-economical and philanthropic issues. The organization is committed to creating a generation of service-minded people who give back to the world by using their innate gifts. Art is a way to connect with teens. It is a common ground between the mentor and mentee and is conduit for a deeper and more meaningful relationship. We currently have 3 programs at One Love Generation: Studio, Mentoring & International with a camp series on the way. We also take field trips ranging from local art galleries to design-build projects in foreign countries. By introducing the teens to new and positive life experiences, they will be given an opportunity for change in their lives and to inspire others; regardless of their career path.

Plywood People: What were you doing before One Love Generation that made you want to start this project?

Jennifer: I studied fine arts & interior design in Chicago during college, then gypsied around the country working on various night-club and restaurant projects. It was a great experience, there just came a time when I decided I wanted to be in service to the world. My love for art paired with my passion for youth and positive change birthed a unique organization.

Plywood People: Can you share about your unique studio space?

Jennifer: The studio is located at the Goat Farm Arts Center, which is housed in a repurposed 12-acre mid-Victorian industrial site in the heart of Atlanta. The space is actually the Goat Farm’s education center that OLG helped establish. It is completely inspiring and truly magical (we welcome visitors with open arms). The education center itself is a safe space for the artists to kick back and tap into their energy. The kids call it their “glee club” because they are all so diverse in style, background and ethnicity; but all bring inspiration to the organization. If they’re ever lacking inspiration, all they have to do is walk outside and tour the turn-of-the-century brick buildings, pop into The Warhorse coffee shop/library, or peek into one of the other studio spaces where musicians, dancers, artists and thinkers are exploring their crafts.

 Plywood People: You incorporated a global aspect to what you’re doing. Would you share about the tree you created in Guatemala?

Jennifer: The International Art Service Project is an extension of the Studio & Mentoring Programs. Teens are selected to participate on the annual trip based on an extensive application process that begins with studying the area we will be visiting & identifying the needs of that specific destination. Once a topic is established, the young artists are required to put together a proposal for an art project that will raise awareness or serve a purpose to the established need. The most recent trip was to El Remate, a village of 370 families in Guatemala. We partnered with our friends at Ix-Canaan, a project created to enable the local people to become “guardians of the rainforest”, and identified problem areas within the community. Littering seemed to be a major issue they were dealing with, so we started studying this along with general Mayan culture. The teens began to assemble individual project submittals of art created from water bottles and soda cans. In the process, we discovered countless pieces of contributing information including the Maya Tree of Life, Yaxche. We found it thought-provoking that the Tree of Life represents the idea that “every choice you make in the wold has an impact on the rest of the world”. This inspired a deeper examination of littering & the impacts the act has on a local community; and on a larger scope, Earth. It was also interesting that we were designing a sculpture made out of man-made trash items that would be installed in Peten’s rainforest, some of mother nature’s best work. It was like a beautiful paradox that was meant to be. Anne, the director of Ix-Canaan, began to spread the word throughout the community that a group of teen artists from Atlanta were planning a community project that all could participate in. When we arrived that first day, we were greeted with more than twenty members of various ages from the community and 2,000 plastic bottles and cans they had collected leading up to our arrival. Even now, that initial welcoming morning that launched the project brings me to tears. It was a reminder of one of many meanings One Love Generation holds for me: humanity coming together as one to create more “good” in the world. The tree sculpture we built that week was more beautiful than we ever could have imagined, in so many ways than just the physical outcome. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” -Gandhi

Tree rendering attached by Khatia Esartia.
Guatemala Photo Set: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150383166761764.382468.240679881763&type=3

 Plywood People: What is your greatest inspiration in the work you do?

Jennifer: Countless “aha! moments” make each day more exciting than the last. Being in the trenches and fighting for more love in the world gives me a sense of a meaningful life. Glimpses of the kids “paying it forward” without OLG’s assistance makes me believe this crazy idea worked. I’m constantly inspired by the potential of the organization’s growth. I can’t wait to see how it will unfold, how many communities it will impact and how many heart-centered leaders it will launch into the world.

I am 100% sure that you are wrong, but I’m humble about it.

Does that phrase strike you as a bit contradictory? It does me. But that’s how many faith leaders would have us think. We are commanded to be humble. But we are also told we must be 100% sure of what we believe.

So when we meet someone who believes differently we have no response but, ‘You’re wrong, I’m right, but at least I’m humble.’

I would suggest that there is a better way to handle differences in beliefs, and it starts with an honest embrace of our own uncertainty.

Complete assurance of any fact is philosophically suspect. Even the famous ‘I think, therefore I am’ has its holes. And to be 100% certain of invisible matters of faith is, frankly, impossible. Even the most devout believers admit that belief takes ‘a leap of faith.’

So instead of brandishing our impossible certainty as a shield, why not offer our honest uncertainty as an olive branch? If I embrace my natural uncertainty and say that I am, perhaps, 90% or 95% certain of my beliefs, this leaves room for the beliefs of others. “Well, I confidently believe something else,” I can say to someone who thinks differently than me, “but I also think there is a chance that you are right.”

Embracing our uncertainty is the root of true humility. And this sort of humility will bloom with honest, respectful dialogue across the many boundaries of belief in our world.

[view original post.]

Deborah Lubbe: Wife to an amazing South African who challenges and inspires me daily, 1/2 yuppy + 1/2 hippie = 1/2 yippy, faithful NPR listener, lover of to-do lists, learning I am not in control of the universe and to be a bit more messy, favorite smells: summer rain on hot pavements and old books.

Tiffany parks her car on a side street and pushes pause on her iPod that has been playing the audio book, Linchpin, by Seth Godin. “Focus.” she thinks aloud, “Today I am going to focus and be productive.  This fundraiser is going to be AWESOME!”

Tiffany walks into the local coffee shop looking for her friend, who is helping to plan the upcoming fundraiser for their favorite cause.  Tiffany’s friend flags her down to a table in the corner and thus begins the catching up ritual that happens in every coffee house when friends gather over a cup of Joe.

“How was your week? Did you get the promotion? That’s awful that your Gmail was hacked. How did you lose your phone in Target? Did you hear on NPR…? How was the concert last week?” And the question and answer session ensues.

After an hour of conversation Tiffany’s friend has to leave to make another meeting.  After she says goodbye, Tiffany sips the remaining coffee pooled in the bottom of her mug and begins to mull over the meeting.

Suddenly, she realizes that the key points of WHY they were meeting were never actually talked about. The possible venues were not discussed, and neither was the social media campaign to advertise the event, or what progress has been made with recruiting volunteers. WHAT happened to the time?

Does this sound like something you’ve experienced? Mentally, you have a calculated checklist of things that should be discussed during an informal meeting, but somehow the subject is never brought to the surface. Rather, a spider web of conversation crystallizes over the hour of time you carved out in your calendar and times skips away from you, laughing.

It’s so easy to get caught up with catching up isn’t it?

Lately my life has revolved around group meetings, international Skype calls at all hours, and coffee shop meetings with loud music being pumped into the air with my field manager.  Even with the best of intentions, for said human interaction, laid out clearly in an email, the time somehow runs away. The focus I wanted to discuss, the details I wanted to clarify, and the questions I had hoped to answer somehow, all escaped the conversation untouched.

While reading Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, earlier this year he spoke about intentionally doing only three things, yes only three a day in order to increase your productivity. The idea being that if you accomplish those three things, your day has been productive in and of itself. Anything beyond those three things is icing on the cake. Mhmmm, cake. Sorry, stay with me.

Originally, I thought this was madness. How can I get anything done if I only do three things a day? Skeptically, I consented with myself to try this insanity. I wanted to start small, so I adapted this tool for scheduled meetings even if it was catching up with a girlfriend over chai.

Prior to any meeting, even if it’s sitting on the curb in front of the coffee shop, I write out the three most important things I need to walk away with from the meeting. Consider it an intentional mini agenda.  I put the sticky in plain sight so I can see the note and use it as a planned attack on time, should he, Time, try to sneak away from me again.

This little trick has helped me not only stay focused and on topic, but also the individual I am meeting knows I am not there to waste their time as well. This way I can cover the areas I really need to know and then allow the spider webbing and brainstorming to take place, which is where the magic happens.

It IS also really great to have conversations without having a game plan, or a formal agenda. However, that should be the intent. Not actually having an outline of how the meeting should go is often the beauty of such an experience. GREAT ideas come from spider web conversations that breed creative thought. Using Godin’s tool for these types of meetings I typically write out the three IDEAS I want to brainstorm during a meeting.

I have this quote written on my wall in my room as a reminder of why I chase intentionally.

“Our job is to make change. Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go. Every time we waste that opportunity, every page or sentence that doesn’t do enough to advance the cause is waste.” – Linchpin

Let’s INTENTIONALLY work towards using time to make CHANGE and CREATE IDEAS. Capture Time when he tries to freely walk away laughing. Take Time by the arm and tell him where to go.

What tools or method have you used or created to keep the intent of your actions, pursuits and passions at the forefront of your mind? 

Read more about intentionality:
Turn the Tables, Change the World
Intentional International Travel
The Eye
66.
On Intentionality
Setting Your Intention
“Leadership is intentional influence.”
Intentional Conversations
The Sprint and Marathon
Mid-Day Escape
Video // Bob Lupton
Levels of Friendship
Our Journey of Intentionality.

by Jim Doggett

I have been called crazy, arrogant, and I suspect delusional. But I am going to change the world. I will do it intentionally. And I am going to do it with tables.

Table 1—Kitchen table
I use my kitchen table to preview my day. I connect the events on my schedule to the larger story of my life—my purpose, my roles, and the people I will encounter today. I use the kitchen table because it is usually quiet (I usually rise earlier than my wife and five kids). I have a cup of coffee on it, along with my favorite book and my pocket calendar. These are the things of world change for me because they fuel me for impact. They direct my gun barrel to the targets of impact. An intentional focus on the first table of the day leads to the opportunities that lead to world change.

Table 2—Lunch/Coffee table
I am rarely alone at the lunch or coffee table. I love food and I love people. Tables are the place where these things come together. I usually eat lunch with a team member, a client/friend, or someone I want to know better. I am intentional with this table. I use it to engage, listen, and encourage. I usually look for a table that has room for my notebook as well as the lunch or coffee we are consuming. I am here to learn and expand. I want it to be a meaningful experience, but not just for me. I don’t necessarily measure its impact by the topic discussed, but by the depth of engagement. Are we connecting at a deeper level than just the rational or volitional? Are we getting to the heart of whatever issue we are engaging? This table is important. It is my connection to the people who will change the world. My personal goal at each of these tables is that the person I am connecting with walks away with a clearer picture of their identity and some new energy to pursue their particular glory.

Table 3—Dinner table
One of my favorite tables during the day is the dinner table because it usually involves the people closest to my heart—my family. The group I most desire to impact should be the group that I am most intentional with, but this does not always occur naturally. It takes work. My dinner table is usually the place of sacrifice as my wife has used her many talents to bring together tremendous ingredients to a feast of sight, sound, smell, texture, and above all taste. And I get to experience it with my children—the next generation of Doggetts. I want to connect with them at a deep level. I am aware that there are many signals they have been exposed to all day that can cloud, confuse, expand or enhance their identity. I am there as the identity giver. I want to walk with them through whatever they have encountered that day, using my insight as “one who has gone before” to connect the events of their day to the larger story of their life. I hope to connect painful moments to the larger story, as well as bring attention to the victories they might have missed. The dinner table is all about feasting on the good things of being together in a big world that needs change. I am here to prepare my family to change the world. I do it by communicating and modeling. The words I say will be heard, but the look in my eye as I tell Mom how great the roast is also an element of change. There is no better place to exercise the intentional muscle than at your own dinner table.

Table 4—Pub table
Perhaps the most “selfish” table for me personally is the pub table. It is here that I have a beverage of my choosing, and the people around it are usually my closest friends. I don’t get to have this time every night, but I seek to at least once a week. It is here that I can speak to the particulars of being a man or a father or a business man or a leader of my domain. I can intentionally ask questions while lighting my favorite hand rolled cigar or attempting to light my favorite pipe. I use this table as a leverage to manhood. I champion the men around it and what I have observed in them that the world needs to show up strong and be reproduced. I also use this table to challenge men to reconsider their perspective or actions if I believe them to be unworthy of reproduction. Of course I am not the final authority on such matters, but I use this table to respectfully engage and recalibrate. I revel in this environment. It is here that the sage is being born, developed, encouraged. I like it most when this table has younger men and older men around it at the same time. I want to extract from the older men their perspective while honoring them. I want to engage the younger men in a way that ingnites their fuel and encourages their passion, while exposing them to the larger story. Again I want to not only articulate world change but model it as well. There is a way to respectfully engage without pushing away. Evil wants to isolate, and a favorite weapon against it is my pub table.

So while the world is big, and I am crazy or arrogant to think I can change it, I am certainly not delusional. Because what the world needs is more intentional personal interaction. And this is what I hope to use EVERY table I encounter for. The focus it provides, the frequency it brings has made me a force to be reckoned with. I seek to intentionally leverage the everyday moments to expand and enhance the role we all play in the larger story. Tables are key. For me.

The world cannot remain the same.

[originally posted on Avalaunch.com]

Read more about intentionality:
Intentional International Travel
The Eye
66.
On Intentionality
Setting Your Intention
“Leadership is intentional influence.”
Intentional Conversations
The Sprint and Marathon
Mid-Day Escape
Video // Bob Lupton
Levels of Friendship
Our Journey of Intentionality.

As you think about the idea of traveling Internationally with kids, most people think this is dangerous, most think it is too difficult, most think they should probably wait till the kids are older, or maybe just leave the kids at home. I believe there are great fears such as:

“I heard about this situation this one time…”
Fears of the unknown, because it’s not like America.
Fears of safety, because it’s not the same as home.
Fears of disease, fears of difficulty, fears of sickness, fears of other cultures.

I too, had many of these fears when we decided to take off to Nicaragua for 3 months, especially traveling with a 21 month old child. However, I believe the positives for international travel far outweigh the negatives. As my dear grandmother reassured me prior to embarking on our great adventure, “Remember there are children in all parts of the world, she will be ok.”

Here are a few of the positive things we have learned while being abroad with our family.

1. Kids are adaptable to most things. It’s usually more difficult for the adults than the children.
2. Learning to value other cultures is important to instill at a young age, it helps children enjoy and appreciate diversity, it helps them learn other languages, and most importantly, it allows them to see how rich and blessed we are in comparison to our friends around the world.
3. Seeing poverty shapes worldview. No one wants to raise spoiled bratty kids. How do you avoid that? Allow them to see and experience friends in poverty around the world and in your home city.
4. International travel reminds the whole family of the things that matter most in life. Time together. Loving all people.
5. It teaches valuable lessons for all: patience is necessary, joy is evident everywhere, money does not make anyone happy.
6. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Difficulty produces many amazing qualities: perseverance and humility.

These are only a few of the lessons we have learned together. There is so much more to learn and to enjoy. I highly recommend taking your entire family on an international trip this year!

What about you? What lessons have you learned traveling internationally? What fears hold you back from bringing your kids along?

Read more about intentionality:
The Eye
66.
On Intentionality
Setting Your Intention
“Leadership is intentional influence.”
Intentional Conversations
The Sprint and Marathon
Mid-Day Escape
Video // Bob Lupton
Levels of Friendship
Our Journey of Intentionality.

Instead is a micro-donation app that encourages people to live within or below their means in order to give to the charity of their choice.

“Living below your means you can help more.”

It’s every bit as simple as it sounds. Say you get a latte every Monday at 9 AM. You spend $4.23 on it. You can choose to spend that money to help a non-profit instead. It’s a way to give a bit of what you typically spend on yourself to help someone else. It’s an intentional way to begin to look outside yourself to help others. This is everything we believe in. We believe that with our excess we can address issues of need and suffering in the world. This is a very simple way to be able to do that.

It just so happens that Suffered Enough, our organization has been listed as one of the organizations, which we’re very excited about. Next time you go to swipe your credit card, consider giving to an organization you believe in.

What can you do with your excess? How do you feel when people ask you to do something else with your excess?

As though this isn’t a beautiful piece of art on it’s own, it’s also a guest board!  It replaces a traditional family guest book, and sits in the entry way waiting for guests to sign, so your family can remember all the guests who have romped through your door.  Allison Dudley’s paintings are gorgeous, on frames handmade by her husband Jim, and she does a beautiful job capturing the significance of the hospitality of your home.

I graduated from university in Autumn 2007 with a Masters in Medieval History and a Bachelor’s in History. I’d spent a lot of time at university doing fundraising and volunteering, including 2 months spent in Uganda in 2005 and knew that I wanted to work for a charity. So my first ‘proper’ job was managing fundraising campaigns for the largest children’s hospice charity in the UK (in fact the world!). I got made redundant in 2009 when the recession started, and so spent most of 2009 volunteering as a project manager for Raleigh International in Malaysian Borneo, working on environmental and community projects. When I got back to the UK, I worked in communications and marketing for a social care organization before meeting Julia Lalla-Maharajh, founder and CEO of Orchid Project, at an event about careers in international development. I’d always felt strongly about female genital cutting as an issue and had recently decided that I wanted to work in international development and particularly on women’s empowerment. I started volunteering for Orchid in October 2010 and since January 2011 I’ve been full-time paid to work for Orchid Project as Programme Co-ordinator.

Plywood People: What problem are you solving?

Ruthie Taylor: 3 million girls a year are at risk of experiencing female genital cutting (FGC) and that’s just in the 29 African countries where it’s known to be an issue – many more girls in other countries in the Middle East, Asia and diaspora communities globally are also affected – and 140 million women worldwide are living with the after-effects of this damaging tradition. Orchid Project believes that a world without FGC is possible and that a significant impact can be made towards reducing the prevalence rates around the world by 2025. We are helping to solve the problem of FGC with a threefold strategy, involving working with partners in the field who deliver an end to FGC through their programmes, undertaking communications and awareness-raising activity to ensure people around the world hear about the FGC and the potential for an end to the practice, and by advocating at the highest possible level for increased resource to help end FGC. Orchid came about because our founder had spent time volunteering in Ethiopia and there came to understand the scale of the problem and its impacts on the lives of girls and women around the world; our strategy and vision comes out of this experience and is entirely based in a belief that, when communities understand that FGC is a human rights violation they will choose to abandon the practice themselves.

Plywood People: What is one piece of advice you would like to offer someone doing similar work?

Ruthie: For me, the thing that really motivates me is the fact that we know that an end to FGC is possible. If it weren’t, I think I would personally find it too difficult to work on this issue every day. Knowing that our partner Tostan is achieving so many successes at the grassroots and supporting communities to end FGC really inspires me and helps me believe that a world without FGC is possible within my lifetime. Having that sort of positive goal is amazing, and I think looking for the positive examples and successes is really motivating, and I would advise anyone working in this sort of sector to look for the positives – often it surprises others, too.

Plywood People: What is the most valuable resource to you in the work you’re doing?

Ruthie: Orchid is a new organisation, founded in 2010 and achieving our charitable status in April 2011. One of the most valuable resources we have at our disposal is the huge amount of activism and work that has already been done around ending FGC in the past 40 years or so; be that UN documents, World Health Organisation statements, Population Council surveys or writing, opinion and research by any of the activists who have been working on FGC. Our partner, Tostan, is our other greatest resource. Before we knew about Tostan, Orchid Project hadn’t heard of any organisation working in the field and really achieving success in ending FGC on any great scale – then we were introduced to Tostan, an NGO which, to date, has enabled over 6,200 communities to choose to abandon FGC in West Africa. Tostan have been working in West Africa since 1991, so we are small, young fry compared with them, but our partnership is going from strength to strength and collaborating with them lets us believe that we will see a world without FGC. For me personally, one of the most important resources is the other people (almost all women) who work on Orchid Project. There’s several of us in our office in London, and we can call upon a couple of dozen volunteers around the world, too, so when something urgent comes up and we need to act fast, there’s always a way.

Plywood People: Who has been the most influencial person in your life as you are working to make a difference?

Ruthie: “In terms of my current role, it’s most definitely been Julia, the Founder and CEO of Orchid Project, without whom I wouldn’t be working on this issue. In a wider way, Heather Corinna (Founder of Scarleteen) has always been an inspiration for me, because of her work on sex-positive sex education.

I’m continually inspired by the people around the world working tirelessly to end female genital cutting, and Sister Fa, a Senegalese hip-hop singer who we are supporting is just so inspiring – she sings about FGC and visits remote regions of Senegal on tours, singing about the fact that FGC can end and putting the word out there that cutting should not be what ascribes value to a girl or woman. She is so charismatic and talented it’s a pleasure to work with her.

Plywood People: How can people join you in what you’re doing?

Ruthie: Orchid Project is active online and has a Facebook page, and you can follow us on Twitter. Our blog is regularly updated, and, if you’d really like to support our work you can of course donate. If you choose to donate, a monthly donation is the best way to help us achieve our goal of a world without FGC.

I suddenly felt like I was being watched. Not that I wasn’t used to the feeling. My job during those years included walking into several different lock-down facilities in our area to conduct chapel services and visit with teens struggling to find their way. You get used to having cameras trained on you from all angles. But this was different. A business card with an eye on it stared up at me from the reception desk. That’s it. Just a big eye. Of course, curiousity got the best of me and I picked up the card. It folded opened and on the inside it said “I saw you…” This residential placement facility for troubled teenagers used a system where staff were encouraged to spot the youth doing something good and then tell them so with one of those cards. For a group of teenagers who were continually being caught doing something wrong and reminded of the wrongdoing and its consequences day after day, that little card was a breath of fresh air.

I’ve never been able to forget that eye.  Our eyes are our information gatherers and gatekeepers. Some would argue that we just take in whatever we see. As if it were purely a biological function outside of our control.  But I’ve learned over the years, that you can train your eyes to see what they want to see. You see an angry young man. I see a hurt little boy protecting himself from more emotional wounds. You see trash. Someone else sees a business opportunity. You see snow to be shoveled. I see sledding in my near future!

Sometimes the hardest place to train ourselves to see well is right in our own home. Let’s face it, those who live with us see our worst—sometimes more often than our best. And one of the perils and joys for me as a homeschooling mom is that I see it all. Too often, I start to zero my focus in on the bad. Those behaviors and attitudes that need fixing. The weaknesses instead of the strengths.

STICKY NOTES to the rescue! I may have mentioned in the past that I’ve fallen in love with sticky notes. This month, I found yet another use for sticky notes! Sticky notes have become my “big eye” cards. I keep a stack of them by my Bible and journal. At the end of the night or in the morning when I sit down to read and write, I think back over the day. Then I write a little note to my family member telling them where I caught them being great. Just a quick note to say what I love about them, what I saw them doing well, how much fun I had with them that day.  Then I stick it on the bathroom mirror.

Not only does it encourage them, but it also changes me. To train my eyes to see what I want to see: the best parts of those I love.  Who can you sticky note today?

Read more about intentionality:
66.
On Intentionality
Setting Your Intention
“Leadership is intentional influence.”
Intentional Conversations
The Sprint and Marathon
Mid-Day Escape
Video // Bob Lupton
Levels of Friendship
Our Journey of Intentionality.