InterFaith Community Services Food Drive

Are you ready to do something meaningful for your community? Then I encourage you to participate in this Food Drive! Read my post below to understand why I am so fired up about volunteering! I had the pleasure of touring the facilities at InterFaith Community Services. They provide so many needed services for people in need. They have services for low income, homeless and underserved populations. For additional information about this organization click here.

The best way I felt we could help would be to sponsor a food drive for their Food Pantry in Escondido. Last year InterFaith provided over 26,000 people with enough food for 3 days. They give away over 1,500 food items per DAY and their needs are increasing about 30% each month. 90% of the food items in their pantry must come from donations. When I visited their food pantry many of the shelves were bare. They need our help!

Here is a list of the most needed food items. While all of these are important there is currently a critical need for the first 3 items.

• Canned Tuna Fish
• Macaroni & Cheese (Not Easy Mac!)
• Canned Beans (kidney, black, etc.)
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Hearty Soups
• Canned Chili
• Dried Pasta
• Canned Panta Meals
• Cold Cereal
• Canned Vegetables
• Canned Fruit
• Peanut Butter
• Jelly
• Diapers

Beginning Sunday, Sept. 14th I will provide a brown paper grocery sack with a Food Needs list attached. Just take a bag (or 3 or 4!) and fill it/them up with the requested items. Bring your donations to church and I will do the rest! The deadline for donations will be Sunday, Sept. 28th. For any additional information or questions please leave a comment on this post, or see Cindy Huff! Thank you for your help in making this Food Drive the HUGE success that I know it will be!

Do You Want To Quit Your Job?

Last Sunday, Dr. Sheila's message was titled, "Quit Working!" I thought this might be an interesting message, if not entirely applicable to me. I have a job, a very VERY part time job working about 5 hours a week. It keeps me busy, give me a little extra spending money and gets me out of the house. Hardly a stressful situation! Of course I do have my other full time "job" as Mommy to a very busy 3 year old boy, lots of fun, sometimes stressful but with a very large payoff! So I sat to listen to the message and wondered what I would learn from it (as I always learn something!)

While Dr. Sheila was speaking I began to remember a few years ago when I did work outside the home full time. Monday through Friday (and sometimes Saturdays!) I woke up, dressed in my business attire (panyhose...yuck!) and put on my happy demeanor for work. A lot of days I would have rather woken up, put on some shorts and gone to the beach! But it was a job and it earned a decent living and helped pay the bills. But there was something else to that job, something that I didn't realize until I wasn't there anymore. It really fed my soul. Every day I felt like I had, in some way, helped another person. And helping other people has always been a passion for me. Before my "job" as Mommy I had worked for 10 years in the "Long Term Care" Industry. I worked at nursing homes and, at my last job, an Alzheimer's Assisted Living. I spent every day at work with some of the most fantastic people, Seniors with health issues, family caregivers, and nurses and caregivers that worked very hard to take care of their residents. So even though I had to go to work every day...in pantyhose....I was still feeding my soul. I never realized how lucky I was until it wasn't there anymore.

So now I work at a job that, while not stressful, is about as boring as they come! Those few hours a week that I spend copying and pasting serial numbers from an Excel spreadsheet into an Oracle database just doesn't seem that important. I do know that my tiny job is part of a larger process that does help others perform their jobs. And I know that some are very grateful that THEY do not have to copy and paste those silly serial numbers! But I don't have that same feeling of living my passion. So I began to think about what would make me feel like I was making a difference, and it just came to me, volunteer work!

I've always wanted to spend time volunteering in some capacity, but it's a challenge to find ways to do that with a 3 year old son. But after Dr. Sheila's message I just had a fire burning in me!! I just knew there was something I could do. On the internet I found InterFaith Community Services and read about all the great work they are doing in the community. I felt instantly that this would be my new passion! Something I can do to make a difference to people in my community. Are you ready to find your passion? Are you ready to follow your heart? What is it about your job that feeds your soul, or makes it possible to pursue other things that feeds your soul? I encourage you to really get quiet in your mind and look inside to see where your passions lie.

Hugs and Love,
Cindy Huff

This Is My Stick!....This Is My Bowl!

I trust everyone had a fantastic Labor Day Holiday! Of course, now that the holiday is over, it's time to get back to work! So here I am updating our little blog. It's been a couple of weeks and I have a lot of excuses I could give you, but you don't want to hear those!

So, how many of you attended Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones' seminar? We weren't able to attend the afternoon seminar but we were at church that Sunday morning when he spoke. He was fantastic! I will definitely make arrangements to attend any seminar of his if it's offered again. That Sunday morning Dr. Jones told a story that many of you may have heard before. It has really stuck with me and come in handy over the last couple of weeks. So I thought I'd blog about it a bit. I will be paraphrasing the story a bit but the general message is still contained.

Once upon a time (I think all stories should start out this way) there was a young man. This man sat at the edge of a river with his legs folded beneath him, his hands turned upward on his lap. His eyes were closed and he was desperately chanting, "I am One with God.......I am One with God......I am One with God." It just so happened that an older man and great teacher, with a stick in one hand and his bowl in the other, came upon the man and began to watch him. After several minutes of listening to the young man chant, the Avatar began chanting loudly, "This is my bowl!.....This is my stick!.....This is my bowl!........This is my stick!" The young man, clearly irritated at the interruption, squeezed his eyes tighter shut and began chanting more loudly, "I am One with God!.....I am One with God!.....I am One with God!" The Great Teacher, not to be outdone, began his chant even louder "This is my BOWL!.......This is my STICK!......THIS is my BOWL!.....THIS is my Stick!" The young man was really becoming annoyed now and looked up at the old man and said "Clearly anyone can see that THAT is your stick and THAT is your bowl. It is obvious. Now can't you see that I am trying to be One with God?!" And to that the Great Teacher answered, "Can't you see that it is just as obvious that you already ARE one with God?"

I can tell you that that story really spoke to me in church that Sunday morning. I had just been experiencing the same desperation as that young man by the river. Due to some recent life experiences I had been thinking, "I really need to make more of an effort to meditate" or "I really need to make sure I ask a practitioner for a treatment for me." Instead of seeing an exciting and stressful situation in my life for what it really is (well, exciting and stressful!) I had become anxious and fearful and guarded. I began to feel as though I needed to TRY and reconnect with my Divine nature. I needed some task to WORK at realizing my oneness with God. That story just helped me remember who I really am, and that I am ALWAYS connected to Spirit. It really does seem so obvious now!

By the way......welcome home Rev. Brian and Dr. Sheila!!