Our World Community...and how you can help

Hello My Lovelies!

It has been two years since my last visit to The Seeds of Love and Hope International Society Community Center in Medellin, Colombia, and I am thrilled and over joyed to announce that I will be returning March 10^th, 2016. And even more exciting Steve and Aiden will be accompanying me for their first time! Also our nephew, Evan, will be coming with us as well, which will be such a treat.

the neighbourhood

A brief back story. This will be my fifth time going down to volunteer at the center. My first time was back in 2009, (Nathen came with me), and I my heart was ever change and truly a piece of it remained, and still remains. I did not return till 2012 as we were unable to go as a group due to the violence not only in the city but in the ghetto neighbourhood of our community center. I then went back in 2013 and also 2014 with Nathen returning with me, along with my brother and niece, (yes I am recruiting my family lol). The first two years I went I did hair services, setting up a little make shift hair studio for the children and moms of the community. For the last two years I have been conducting one on one and group sessions with the kids in our program and the women who work at our center, along with some of the moms of the kids who are in our program. I have been listening to them and collecting their stories for a book I plan to put out about this community and some of my experiences there. This year I will be my last year of interviews and also I am contemplating setting up a hair studio again as I will be going for over two weeks this time as opposed to our usual 10 days. While we are there, Steve will be setting up vegetable gardens as self-sustainability and community service is a huge part of our program down there. The garden would not be able to sustain what the center needs for the meals we provide but it will assist in supplementing the need and also it will get the children involved in learning how to create and tend to a garden as 

they will be the ones taking care of it.

a typical family kitchen

We are excited to be a part of this wonderful place 

and I am so looking forward 

to sharing my “other family” with Steve and Aiden.

 

the caretakers home at the center

So as I have done in the past I am putting a call out to anyone who would like to contribute in a financial way to this cause. What I have found since my very first trip is that always, when we are there, unexpected needs come up within the community that we are assisting. Things like emergency medical services, transport back and forth from appointments, medicine costs, housing costs, basic food needs not being met, shoes, clothing….and more. I quickly learned that having cash on hand when I go down has been a very good practice. This is where you come in, if you are interested. Your donation would come directly with me, down to the center and I will distribute it directly to the need at hand. This will be my fourth year doing this and I have collected up to $1500 from all over the world. Donations run from $10 to $100, and let me tell you, in a third world country a little goes a long long way. Some of your money may also go towards some of the supplies Steve will need for the garden start up and also maybe put toward the gifts bag that I put together every visit for our staff there…12 women 2 men….

NONE of your money will be put toward our personal trip costs! 

 

The Community Center which is behind the caretakers home...offices/classrooms and then the mess hall and kitchen

That is important for you to know. Whatever is left over will stay at the center in the hands of our very capable coordinator, and she will put it where it is needed. 

One year we were able to buy a much needed industrial fridge for the kitchen with the money I gathered from generous hearts.

There is one catch to all of  this. 

There is no tax receipt for this donation. 

So if this is important to you and you would like to contribute then I invite you to go here http://www.solahis.com/ and donate directly. 

But if you are interested in sending your money directly to the trenches and hearing back from me about where it went, then I invite you to respond to this post or email me at catscorner@telus.net and we can discuss further. 

I am even open to requests if you have something specific on your heart. I so appreciate you reading this. I also invite your prayers, good thoughts and love as we travel down. 

That our eyes and hearts be open to all that is happening around us and 

that where there is a need, 

we might rise to meet it.

Love and Light my Lovelies

 Catherine

for the stories of past trips go here:
Stories from The Hill 

If you want to find me...

 I have been writing...

for what seems like endless hours
moving into endless days
and I am feeling

 especially vulnerable 
along side feeling
a fiery strength of conviction, 

as I  write my heart

lay it down

open and exposed

 that you might find me

that you might see me

that you might know me

so strong am I

so willing

so steady and firm

so fragile am I

so unsure

so timid 
and in this place 

I can be found 
in the mystery of the morning 

when the break of day comes over the land

when the first breath of morning

exhales

and life again begins...

Love and Light and Shadows

The Three Signs before Christmas...

The Three Signs

It was a few days before Christmas,

when the signs came my way

I had not asked for them

And I was not expecting them.

They were indeed

an unexpected gift

The First Sign:

I was at Costco picking up some prints.

I go there often and

know the photo shop staff quite well

A young guy is there…maybe late 20’s early 30’s

English accent and I have not seen him before

He steps up to serve me and all is business as usual…

until the end

He looks at me and pauses…

then he asks me if I am spiritual…

There is a moment of hesitation as I find this a peculiar question

the hesitation quickly turns into a smirk as this has happened to me before

and I am curious as to why he is asking…

“yes”

I say with a big smile on my face.

He asks me if he can share something with me.

I say, again, “yes!”

He proceeded to tell me that he sees a big tree….old….

with strong deep roots.

He goes on to say that in 2016 this tree is going to bare much fruit

He says to me,

“all you have been working towards will prosper this coming year.”

I thanked him.

 A slight bow of gratitude and knowing is shared between us

And then I left,

sat in my vehicle

and cried.

The Second Sign:

 This one happened at Winners…the same day

I had to pick up some last minute gifts.

The store is packed but they have all 11 cash registers going

so the line-up is moving quickly.

It was in this line up I experienced an “interesting” exchange

with a very intense, negative woman.

The story is not important

What was important was the familiar buttons her aggressive behaviour

pushed in me

I would say, very clearly and decisively, that she was of the bullying sort.

I watched myself as I did not react but instead

I paused and felt what was rising within me

a very familiar feeling

one that as a child took me over and into intense and sometimes

blinding fear.

I said to myself … “Feel it…sink and breathe into it…it is only a feeling”

I actually allowed it to come up and over my body

as I stood there with a smile on my face…

After this pause within myself,

as she continued on her rant,

I looked directly at her and quietly and calmly

said to her what I needed to say

and moved on.

I felt all the feelings

even the trembling in my belly

But it did not matter

It was not mine to take on or mine to make right

I moved on and left her in her cloud of negativity

as I basked in yet another Divine Sign

I left the store with a huge smile on my face

got in my car

and laughed out loud.

The Third Sign:

…the last one

took place at my home

As a Christmas gift to ourselves we canvased

three of our prints to hang in the living room…

they were the prints I was picking up early at Costco.

Three prints to replace the one.

As we took down the eagle print

there

petrified against the wall

perfectly intact with wings spread

was a beautiful moth.

Now Moth has played an important part in my self love healing

It was Moth who told me some years back

 that I would never understand her

or the part of her within me

 until I stopped longing to be the butterfly.

This was a huge lesson for me.

That I would be wise

to learn about and accept all parts of myself equally

and that, even in what I could not see as beautiful,

there was indeed beauty.

It felt to me,

like this offering was not only a reminder

but a declaration in that I was doing just that…

learning to love all the parts of me

even those parts that

do not seem beautiful to me.

This was an amazing day for me…

I felt seen and loved by Spirit.

I felt The Creator watching over me and blessing me

I felt valued.

These signs…these blessings

helped me face a not so easy Christmas

they helped me walk with ease

one hand holding grief

one hand holding love.

What kinds of miracles 
have you been experiencing?

Love
and Light...
and a Happy and Blessed New Year
xoxoxox