Category Archives: deep thoughts

A FaceBook & Social Media Success Story

As my birthday neared last month I received an email from the Facebook “Causes” application, suggesting that I could put a Birthday Wish on my FB page to gather donations for a favorite charity in lieu of birthday gifts. At first I was reluctant to participate. I tend to dislike FB apps and I don’t want to annoy my FB friends with frivolous emails or requests. However, I let the idea gel for a few days and then decided that it might be worth fundraising for HandReach, a non-profit that provides and education and medical care for children in China. When my friend Brecken (who works for HandReach) visited a few weeks ago I felt drawn to her stories of the children who were severely burned or disabled and were in need of prosthetics to replace missing limbs.

So I decided to jump in and do it, despite my initial hesitancy. As I logged onto the application it gave me many options for my “wish,” including setting a suggested donation amount ($38 because I was turning 38 years old), sending out individual messages to each of my FB friends, letting the application take over my status messages for the duration of the fundraising, and setting a reasonable campaign goal (I chose $380 thinking that maybe 10 of my friends might want to contribute).

What ensued blew me away.

I met my $380 goal within a few hours, then upped it to $600 and met that quickly, too. I then set the seemingly unreachable goal of $1000 and met that long before my actual birthday. What an amazing experience it was to see the donations and well-wishes pouring in from friends near and far.

Words aren’t enough to tell you how much joy it brought to be a part of this campaign and to experience the goodness and generosity of my friends. And I’d call this a tremendous success story for the potential of social media. While I think Facebook and Twitter can be huge time-wasters, they also have HUGE potential for connecting groups of likeminded people for doing good. We saw this with the impact of social media on the last election and I’m sure that we will continue to see its ripple effects in the months and years to come. It’s invigorating (even seductive) to participate in these forms of media and to get a feel for their immediacy and power.

After the hoopla of my Birthday Wish was over, one of the developers of the Causes application contacted me about the success of my fundraising efforts. From her I learned that my Wish had earned more funding than most, and they wanted learn why I was so successful. In a nutshell, these were my thoughts:

I picked this particular organization because they give money for medical care to amputees in China–I am an amputee myself so this is a Cause that I’m passionate about and that most of my friends have sympathy for through my experiences. My advice to those who are considering a Birthday Wish is to choose an organization that reflects your own experiences and interests–so your friends will feel invested in supporting your Cause.

One reason I believe I received so many donations is that I not only had FB announcing my Cause, but I also did daily blogposts leading up to my birthday about my Wish, I tweeted the link daily, which was ‘re-tweeted’ by some friends.

I found myself incredibly satisfied with the overall functionality of the Causes application and would encourage each of you to consider a Birthday Wish campaign. I look forward to seeing what Cause would motivate you to forgo birthday presents, and wish the developers of this application the best of luck in their efforts in using Facebook for such positive ends.

contradictions


when only a tutu will do, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

Today’s escapist fantasy: me as a ballerina. Though I studied ballet briefly as a young girl, I never showed any promise as a dancer.

But today I’m living my contradictions.

I’m typically quite practical and utilitarian. I rarely dress ‘girly’ and I’m not ‘fancy.’ But I do have this romantic pretty’streak inside that drives me to hang gauzy curtains on my canopy bed, wear silver bangle bracelets, and occasionally dress up in something that I wouldn’t dare wear out of the house.

for comfort


my favoritest socks (yum!), originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

“I know there is strength in the differences between us.
I know there is comfort where we overlap.”
~Ani DiFranco

Sometimes when I’m feeling angry, sad, depressed or frustrated, I need a bit of comfort. Sometimes that comfort comes in the form of a cuppa of my favorite tea blend. Sometimes it’s some time out for scratching a kitty behind the ears. Sometimes it’s my favorite black sweater. Sometimes it’s a pair of socks so soft and cozy that they are like a hug from the universe.

What do you seek out for comfort?

paddling


paddling hands, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

The writing on my hand is an abstracted map of the racecourse for our meet on Saturday (the directions out of the marina and out on the open ocean). Our boat didn’t get lost during the race, but this steersman couldn’t follow her googlemap (or Thomas Guide) back to the freeway onramp, so we got a nice tour of Culver City as I attempted to get my bearings and find a way home. Hilarious, methinks.

rising rose


rising rose, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky;
there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul”
~Victor Hugo

I can just never get enough of that azure blue sky (and the blooming roses frame it just perfectly, in my opinion).

My BIG Birthday Wish!

I’ve decided that this year what I really want most for my birthday is for each of you who are able, to make a donation to my favorite charity, HandReach. One reason I care so much about HandReach is that they provide medical services, most specifically prosthetic limbs, to children in China. I want to give the gift of mobility to these young amputees–because I know all-too-personally just how much easier life can be with a good-fitting prosthesis!

My friend Brecken of HandReach sent me the following message after learning of my plan to solicit donations:

Jana, you rock!!! I was offline all day today, only to log in and find a bunch of lovely donations from your friends. Now I feel like it’s HandReach’s birthday, too! 🙂

I’d like to designate this money to a special cause. We’re going to be providing prostheses this summer for a 12-year-old girl who lost both legs in the Sichuan earthquake last year. We just learned this morning that there was a fire in her temporary camp overnight, and her house and first set of prostheses burned. We’re planning to get her a set of even better prostheses, and plenty of excellent rehab. Her name is Huang Meihua (pronounced “Hwahng May-hwa”), and you can see her photos here [note: link fixed!]

Happy, happy, happy birthday, Jana! I can’t thank you enough for thinking of HandReach! You are giving the gift that will truly keep on giving….

For those of you who would like to join in my birthday wish, you can donate directly via this page. And do feel free to pass the link forward to anyone outside of this blog’s sphere who might also want to contribute to this worthy cause.

And for those of you who have already donated…your generosity amazes me. Thank you so much for making my birthday the best one ever!

veranda


hostel house, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

This is where I spent my evenings after I finished my work in the State Archives. What a relaxing, beautiful space.

This is the view from the inside, with the evening light filtering in:
hostel house

I don’t understand why contemporary builders no longer emphasize front porches. Perhaps it’s because people spend more of their time watching TV and less of their time watching the world go by their front door….

time and magic and (just a few) tears…

As I was showering after returning home from my first-ever outrigger canoeing race and reflecting a bit on how much fun I’m having with this sport…I couldn’t help but think back to where I was a year ago: in the hospital agonizing over an infection in my left leg that just wouldn’t heal.

Many of you probably remember the entry I wrote after that night I spent in fear of losing my leg and the hope I had as I was slowly recovering. Back then I had no idea that my battle with the infection would flare up again while I was visiting Denver, or would last well into August.

So as the hot water poured over my head and back I cried a few tears of joy…they were just about as salty as was the water that I swallowed after falling into the San Diego Bay this morning (boo on that nasty red boat who steered their nose under our ama!). But you know what–it didn’t matter that we tipped. We recovered quickly, got our wits about us, and still ended up passing many other boats to a solid finish in the race (and I tell you, when we came into the home stretch and heard hundreds of people cheering us home, it didn’t matter one bit what place we were in that race). We paddled our best and gave it our all. We had fun. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else but out there this morning! (note to self: adrenaline is a magical drug–I leapt right back into that boat with nary a thought about my inability to do a pullup).

As a Mother’s Day/birthday gift John bought me a fancy new steering blade(!!!!). What a great partner he is–seeing me through thick and through thin for the past two decades. That man, he is pure magic–I knew if from the moment I first saw him and he proves it true again every day.

When I had my surgery at the end of last summer, my doc told me it would take at least a year before my leg would be healed through and through. But he was wrong. The healing…it’s all done now.

🙂

rolling


Occasionally and when I think no one’s looking, I’ll take a roll down a hill. There’s such a thrill in letting momentum take over. And then when I’m done, I just lie around for awhile, enjoying the way the world keeps on spinning even when I’m not.

What about you, what do you do when no one’s looking?

PS: Any guesses as to what item is hanging out of my hoodie pocket in the bottom pic?? You can see a larger version here.

reflux

A brief request: I’ve been battling gastric reflux issues for months now and OTC meds and lifestyle changes don’t seem to be working (I’m even cutting out my beloved afternoon tea…sigh). And the lack of quality sleep is starting to wear me down.

Can any of you who’ve dealt with this share your best ideas for feeling better? I’ll be heading to the doc soon but I’d love to know if there’s something I should try that I haven’t yet, or just to hear from folks who’ve been successful in dealing with this problem.

It’s such a little thing compared to other health issues that I’ve had, but I’m realizing that it’s not getting better and might not stay such a little thing…For example, last night I had a horrible spell of coughing, asthma, burning throat–all while I was just too tired to hardly be able to deal with it. And now I’m just so so tired. Help!