Sunday, March 16, 2008

Challenged!

Each Friday I receive a running total of my donations to date. This Friday my running total was $2,410.00. What's interesting to me is that very few people have donated (16) but those that have, have been EXTREMELY generous. So, I am VERY grateful for those beautiful, beautiful 16 people. But then, as a serious type A personality, I begin to panic. I have reached out to HUNDREDS of people now and have only gotten donations from 16 people. At this point, I do what any good Type A personality does. I begin to doubt whether I can do this. Can I find enough people to care about these children half a world away like I do? How will I ever raise $20,000? Then I fret and stress and I fret and I stress. But then I stop and I breath deeply like yoga has taught me to do. I allow myself to think about the "what ifs". What if I don't raise the $20,000 that I set out to do? As I think on that awhile, a great sense of relief sinks in. I realize that even if I don't raise $20,000, I am still raising money. I am still doing something to help these children. That's more than I have ever done before. So, at the end of this year, even if I don't make my goal, my heart is more open now than it was when I began this challenge and I know by this time next year, my heart will be even more open. And more importantly, I know there will be a child or possibly a few children in Cambodia that will not die because of my efforts. Those children will have received life-saving antibiotics or an immunization. Perhaps there will be a child or two that does not get sold into slavery because they will be living at CCF. Those lives will be forever changed because of what I am doing. So, I will cling to this notion and focus less on the end goal and more on every single small success because every small success has a HUGE impact on a child.