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Giving and Receiving Abundantly
By Liz Thompson | August 31, 2009
Lynne Twist is renowned for many things. She’s an activist, author and speaker. But perhaps her greatest accomplishment is as a fundraiser. Recognized today as one of the world’s most greatest humanitarians, she’s raised over $150 million over the last 30 years to deal with mankind’s biggest issues, including hunger.
The mission of Lynne’s Soul of Money Institute, which is based on her bestselling book, is to lead people and organizations to a place of sufficiency and peace in their relationship with money. She believes all of us struggle to find a balance between what we feel called to do in our lives and our financial interests. And when we act from the ‘domain of the soul’, we act with integrity.
Her life’s work of living from the domain of the soul began with a moment of inspiration when she was five years old. After learning that many children didn’t get enough to eat and were dying of hunger, Lynne wondered why the adults weren’t fixing that. She remembers thinking about how she could make herself the kind of person who could tackle something like that.
The opportunity presented itself years later when she became one of the first staff members of the Hunger Project, a remarkable labor of love born of a collaboration between Buckminster Fuller and Werner Erhard, who believed that to let millions of people die of hunger in a world awash with food was not a food or political issue, but an issue of human integrity. From there, her life really unfolded in a direction of contribution, transformation, social change and service that she’d never dreamed possible.
In the 1990s, Lynne and her husband Bill traveled to South America. There, they had a remarkable experience/encounter with Achuar Indians of Ecuador who, by design, have kept themselves completely isolated from the modern world. However, with the world closing in around them, they initiated what they most feared, contact with the outside world, and asked Lynne’s group to be their modern-world friends and to educate them about the modern world.
With help, this indigenous people from South America would not only be able to defend themselves against threat and danger, but would be able to work toward protecting and safeguarding the rainforests. The Pachamama Alliance grew out of this initial meeting, and joins the forces of the Achuar Indians and North American visionary leaders.
Is there anything we as individuals can do to address the issues and challenges today’s world presents us? Lynne encourages all of us to be a creator of the future. That’s the best way to predict the future. Create what you want to see happen. Even if we don’t recognize it, we have great deal of control over our lives.
And when tragedy, shock, and trauma rock our world, they can be the greatest of all catalysts. We can fall to our knees and give up, or we can use it as the great gift that it is to turn the tide and generate a whole new future for human life. That is the gift of giving.
How is the calling of your soul directly related to the money you have in your life? What is the true root of abundance? Lynne Twist explains this and more. Dont delay click here to listen to the Lynne Twist interview.
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