The Best Gifts Are The Simple Ones
01.24.2006 | Chris Bailey | Focused on Creative,Life
Over the past couple of months, I had the privilege to be a part of something magical. It all started when a great fella named Dave Rothacker had a hair-brained idea: wouldn’t it be neat if a group of people took a book which had a lot of shared meaning – each signing it with something nice – and sent it back to the author? Dave, being the hardboiled optimist that he is, dismissed the difficulties of coordinating such a feat. He didn’t care that the book would need to touch over thirty people dispersed throughout North America and Europe. He also stuck out his tongue at the very thought of trying to do this during the busiest time of year for mailing services – the Christmas/end of December holidays. And yet, it all worked better than anyone could have dreamed.
Those of us who make up Rosa Say’s Ho’ohana Community got a chance to let Rosa know how much she means to each of us. All of us have read her book, Managing with Aloha, and have been inspired to bring more of ourselves to our work. What started with Dave’s humble, yet powerful, idea snowballed into a project of love that involved each person giving something of themselves. Folks in the community coordinated personal handoffs with each other, they took pictures of themselves and the book, they wrote notes in the margins detailing how a particular part of the book made an impact on them.
It brings a smile to my face just imagining (and reading a recent email to the Community) how Rosa feels. All of us who write want to know on some level just how much of an impact their words have on others. In the end, what turned out to be just a book was transformed into a living testament of how one person has made a difference in the world.
All of this is a gracious and beautiful reminder that the best gifts are those given with simple intentions. Creating the gift may not always be easy, but when offered with true love from the brightest light of the soul, the gift assumes a power that is truly magical. And it encourages greater acts of light and love in other ways and in other places. Those of us in the Ho’ohana Community now ask, "What else can we do now?"
Cheers, Rosa. Your magic begets even more magic by those who are blessed to know you.
14 Responses to “The Best Gifts Are The Simple Ones”
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Mahalo Chris for blogging this so well for me! I have wanted to share this story since the book first came back in my hands this past Sunday night and I haven’t been able to do so without a whole lot of emotion washing out logical, well-written sentences.
[On the “came back†part above: I don’t know if some of you noticed that I had signed the book myself first, a now-rare first printing copy, and sent it to Dave believing it was a gift for someone else. Across from my signature, Dave started the book on its journey writing, “The Traveling MWA - as is crisscrosses the land, it captures spirit, love, and thanks to eventually arrive … at its home.â€]
As you have said here, I don’t think an author could hope for a better gift, than to see which of their written words are underlined, highlighted and commented on by people you know and care about deeply, people whose opinions and thoughts are very important to you. It is a profound gift when people tell you subsequent stories about your work, feeling you have made a difference to them.
However the greater gift has been the bravery you all were willing to be vulnerable with, in making connections with each other while wearing your caring for me. The greater gift has been that you have all opened yourselves to not lurking, and not being silent readers, to leap from the comfort of privacy to the willingness of open, honest engagement when the miles between us mean there are no face-to-face assurances, no precalculation of risk.
The relationships created in a virtual community with someone who says “give aloha your trust†is for me the miracle of my book. It is filled with signatures, with stories, with bookmarkers and pictures, with mana‘o and aloha shared between so many people who have never personally met but still trust enough to love each other, because they have met each other soul-to-soul.
I am still awestruck to silence when I realize what the coordination of my gift entailed as this precious, precious book traveled across the globe. I am having some trouble keeping up with my emails right now as the still untold chapters of Traveling MWA’s story are related to me, and this is trouble I hope never ever ends.
For the complete story of Traveling MWA’s journey is a story of humanity and completely unselfish giving from one human being to another on the journey itself, not just in preparation for the final destination. The book has fallen apart in its traveling, and I hear there was a discussion about repairing it for me first. Dwayne had shared this in an email with me today, “…we had some debates about whether or not to have the separated binding repaired. A lot of us dug in saying that it added character to the book, showing its own signs of the journey (love-worn, I think someone said).â€
Love worn indeed! I am so glad you all decided not to “fix it†for it is perfection to me as it is. The best gifts are born in aloha, or they are transformed by love (which is after all what aloha is). Those gifts wear the signs of it proudly, and they mean the most.
I love my gift more than I can express. However I am also beaming with pride for the expression of our community’s shared love, and bravery in saying so. I hope people will read your post, and my response, and get inspired knowing THEY can give gifts like this to others. They can share their own humanity and get the acknowledgment back that nothing can ever be better.
Ua ola loko i ke aloha: Love provides life from within.
Rosa
Chris, You have captured the spirit of our endeavor in a most excellent way! In regards to the coordinating part; it was easy for me to dismiss due to Stacy Brice. Stacy put great effort into obtaining everyone’s information and putting together a travel route. I also think special recognition is due to Stacy for sending the Traveling MWA to Europe, next day, as well as to Felix Gerena for sending it back to the US from Spain.
This is true testament to the power of wom…word of mouth. First, there has to be something worth talking about…and Rosa’s book, along with all of the parts of Rosa that she shares with others on her blog, is worth shouting from the rooftops. Then, you have to have evangelists…and the Ho’ohana community was it, for this event. We all love Rosa, we all LOVE Managing with Aloha, and we wanted to not only share it with the world, but give some of that Aloha! and ho’ohana back to Rosa.
Me, I’m proud to be among all these truly GREAT folks! And to count Rosa as a friend of mine. Lucky, lucky me.
ah, and now we can talk about it… we have kept the secret for sooo loonngg!
Thank you Chris for posting this for us all. We are all so fortunate to know each other, and a HUGE thank you to Rosa for all the love, life, and leadership she has given us all. Perhaps Rosa could write a follow-up book “Never Aloha Alone” where she tells the tale of how to build a community of 40+ people who all share 1 common purpose: to make the world a bit better for everyone else.
Like Yvonne, I am so blessed to be part of this team, nay, FAMILY, of individuals who care for each other so much. Wow, and thank you Rosa for connecting us all. We are all better for knowing you, and each other!
Never Aloha Alone
This post has been a long time coming. I started it at the end of November, and am only now able to finish it; until a couple of days ago, I was sworn to secrecy! Read on, to learn about
I have an idea…if we do this again, let’s reverse the list! I must say it was very inspiring to be near the end of this thing and to see all of the words and mementos that were included. It would be great for those of you who started this thing to see what it looked like! I almost felt like I was prying a bit, snooping if you will, because of the way each note exuded with love and aloha for Rosa!
I know that Chris says it plainly that this was actually a simple thing. We passed a book around and wrote a note in it. But I am amazed at the power inherant in our sneaky little deed. Rosa has been very open about the incredible joy of this gift. Wow. Is anyone else in awe of the sense of community that we developed (I know we are called a community…but isn’t it cool when we act like one!?!).
I’ve shared this story with most of my co-workers and they are equally impressed by the worldwide effort (and all clamor to read my copy of MWA!). Perhaps its a story that should be told to others in some way…
I found this site through makingadifference.typepad.com I’m so stunned. This is a beautiful community, a beautiful gift, and a beautiful use of the medium of blogging. It’s what I always hope to find when I’m online. I’m going to link to you from my blog, if you don’t mind.
A Story of a Community…Acting Like Community
I have been a part of a great story. Perhaps I talk too much about Rosa Say and her blog, Talking Story. Maybe I post a few too many links to her material and her resources. But then again…maybe
What an honor it was to hold this amazing book in my hands for a few minutes and add a few words to the tome known as the traveling MWA. I just finished reading a post on Hanna Cooper’s blog about becoming real…
What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side… “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
The Traveling MWA took a long time, travelled a long way, got all broken up, and finally became “REAL”
Thanks Rosa for putting this amazing community together!
Talked to Rosa on the phone today. She told me the book was her most treasured possession. How wonderful to have been a part in the giving of a gift with such meaning. Thank you for the experience, and let’s figure out a way to get the virtual community together in one physical location — if we could do the book logistics, this should be a snap!
Matt
An amazing experience indeed – thanks to all who worked hard to make it happen.
I’d agree with Matthew’s comments about the community meeting up in person – how about in Hawaii?
An Aloha Attitude of Love
Are you ready for tomorrow? February 14 comes but once a year. What I love about Valentine’s Day is that love does not lend itself to easy purchases. I’m sorry to burst the bubble of all you retailers out there,
Hawaii? I’m in. When’s the trip?