A Penny Per Word: My Charitable Drip System

Times have changed…they tend to do that.  It rankles me that in these days of cinched financial belts and lighter wallets, I’ve had to curtail my charitable contributions. I’m looking more towards donating time (and efforts, like climbing a mountain for Charity Water , but that’s a whole different blog post! ) So, I’ve decided to give back first – before I can even make a decision to buy a new belly dance bauble or indulge in a decadent meal at Cafe Aroma.

Open Ocean, New Zealand. Photo by G.Stark

I am siphoning off the top of the little beginnings of income I’ve begun to receive from outside freelance blogging. It’s a penny. Per word. I’m thinking I can do that. It will motivate my writing, too! 😉  It’s a start….and yes, it’s small. A trickle, even.  So I call it a drip system, and hopefully one day these contributions will fill a small bucket…how many buckets fill an ocean? If we counted, we may never take these first steps, being overly daunted. I cringe to think of how little progress would be made in the world if we all chose to stand around and wait only for the moment we can do something grandiose.

“The greatest mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little.”  Sydney Smith

I’ll keep you updated as to the worthy and resonating causes I’ll contribute to. So many to pull at my heart strings, from protecting topsoil, turtles or tundra to providing clean water, education or food.  I’ve been labeled a “tree hugger” and my only protest to such a moniker is that I love oceans, wetlands, soil, air (comes in kinda handy, at times 😉 ), people, coral, creatures…you get it.

Caught - hugging trees! Photo by my sis, Irina

My first will be The Nature Conservancy, an organization I have long supported and admired. They started with a simple premise: Rather than negotiate legal protections for the environment and the creatures surviving in the last hold outs; they outright purchase the land, thereby protecting it as the generous and wise stewards that they are. More recently, they use leverage and education with cattle ranchers, etc. You can read more about their efforts and successes on their blog. Please do!  You can also follow them on Twitter @nature_org

Many of you who are on Twitter have jumped in and texted a $5, $10 or more donation to help out the Haiti or Chilean earthquake victims. So convenient, such a nominal amount, it’s so easy to relinquish the same amount that latte would cost you. It is in this spirit that I’m making a pledge to scrape a little “foam” off the top off my blessings. Thank you, my dear readers, for showing up here, for caring and for sharing in this endeavor, by at least encouraging me to keep at it 🙂 Bliss you!

Top faucet photo by P. Stark