Dear Augie,
As I sit in at my desk in my office and read your Forbes Article, Warren Buffett and Cardianl Lamberto: The Two Best Kept Secrets to Success, my heart is filled with hope that I can be more selfless today. We are fundraising for our annual hospital ball. It is our largest fundraiser for the hospital each year. I have been focusing more on the revenue we want to raise rather than visualizing the thousands of people we serve each year and the better service doctors and medical expertise we help to provide to our community. And, what the future services our hospital will be able to provide to our patients with our donators continuing their support.
Thank you for your inspiration!
Many hugs to you, dear one,
Barbara Johnson
Columbia-Greene Hospital Foundation
Foundation Coordinator
Augie,
The second I read Barbara’s message I was able to get out of my own way (for a moment) and the hairs on my neck and arms stood at attention.
Almost 60 days into AA/NA/Alanon again and all the reading and bible groups and I only know that “I feel even more inadequate than I felt before.” like James Sadwith said in his response. Forgiveness is hard when someone has hurt you… and still I have found it in my heart to forgive others that have hurt me. Yet I cannot seem to find that forgiveness for myself. I can’t seem to get out of my own way. I am grateful in so many ways for your love, the love of my family, and God’s love and yet despite all that love… I still do not love myself. After a year of taking steps toward what I was sure was the path I was being called to travel, I am afraid of every path now or any of the moves I could make. What I want to do is forget myself because it so painful to sit still in the same room with myself and be so aware of me. - Melissa
Melissa,
I have a service and selflessness challenge for you. Work on forgetting yourself and your flaws and your anxiousness over your performance, and focus beyond yourself on correspondences like this. This note from Barbara didn’t arise from MY work. It arose from OUR work. Never forget that. This isn’t MY brand. It is OUR brand. This isn’t my life’s work. It is OUR life’s work. And in the end it isn’t about either of us. This is God’s work, we just need to remember to be grateful that he is letting us help out.
Love, Augie
Augie, Even writing that paragraph above feels so selfish after what Barbara wrote and yet I wrote it anyways. I will try to take you up on your challenge as I do have hope that one day my heart will open to God’s grace. A grace that seems within my reach one day (of the mind) and just outside my reach the next (the transformation or change of heart). Melissa
Have faith. If it were easy everyone would do it. I keep saying it is a life’s work…..and yes, it gets mighty hot and dry in the desert. Augie
