Growing up I played volleyball. I was a setter. My job was to thoughtfully and skillfully place the ball in the air so the hitter could spike it and score. If I did my job well then hitters shined.
Setters don't get much glory, though. It is hitters, like Jennifer Gavin, who get the glory. Jennifer stood at 5'11'' and could spike balls with near straight trajectory downward. That is, providing my set was a good one.
The Yellow Envelope Project sets people up to shine. And, as we have learned through your nominations over the past eleven months, star hitters aren't too hard to find.
Heather, Cheryl, and I decided a long time ago, that while we wanted to make a difference in the world, we did not want to get in line behind the other 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the United States. Rather than create more noise by beating our drum longer and louder, in an effort to raise money for hunger, education, the environment, or world health issues, we opted to work quietly and diligently at filling a different niche.
The Yellow Envelope Project is a team of setters.
We scour the globe for first, second, third, and fourth string players who are making a difference in their corners of the world and then... we tell them they shine. We send notes in yellow envelopes, cheery postcards, a copy of our Shine Manifesto, and occasionally a check to support their work.
We want to send a Shine t-shirt too. In fact, we have a goal. Put a Shine t-shirt in the hands of 1,000,000 people who shine by the year 2013. Free, to the recipient.
A Shine t-shirt, plus packaging and shipping costs $20.00.
If you agree the world benefits from a small, but committed group of setters whose job is to thoughtfully and skillfully help others shine, then consider using our Paypal account to make a donation. Every dime goes directly toward telling one more person he or she shines.
One more thing. We don't mind if you beat our drum longer and louder. Consider sharing our post on Facebook, Tweeting, or forwarding today's post to someone via email. We think the world is ready for a little more shine.
I told myself, in preparation for today's post, that I would randomly open to a page in M.J. Ryan's book, This Year I Will and let the chapter speak to me. I would go where M.J. Ryan's words took me.
Page 112, "Yes, You Can Find the Time."
House of Shine readers who tuned into yesterday's Community Forums General Discussion have to be smiling right now. Robin, loyal reader and author of countless books on parenting, is using the General Discussion Forum to mentor anyone who is interested in writing a book, a short story, or a magazine article. Yesterday's forum discussion revolved around setting a goal for daily word count and then carving out time to meet that goal.
I was perspiring as I was reading Robin's encouraging, yet no-nonsense, approach to publishing. I was sweating because, as all too many of you know, I claimed 2010 as my Year of the Book. While many of you were off claiming the Year of Me, Year of Organization, Year of Art, Year of the Phone, and Year of Home Decorating, I was busy setting a goal that there is no way to squirm my way out of. There can be no half decorated house, no two pieces of art instead of twenty, no talking on the phone more than I did.
When it comes to a book, I either wrote one in 2010 or I didn't.
Two hundred twelve words a day is what I need to write in order to reach my goal by December 2010. Sounds manageable, I know.
I am sweating because, frankly, I cannot - CAN NOT - imagine where I will fit one more thing into my schedule. As it is, I spend my morning shower thinking about what I am going to think about on my way to work. While at work, I routinely think about my next three or four moves: (1) finish memo, (2) return three phone calls, (3) scour the internet for information necessary to work on a project, and (4) send an email reminding people of upcoming meeting. Oh, and step number five... review planner for next four things to do.
Home is the same. I break simple tasks into parts that span days. Monday, make dough for Cookie Cutter Challenge cookies. Tuesday, bake cookies. Wednesday, decorate cookies . Thursday, package cookies and photograph. Friday, write post featuring cookies. As for folding laundry, one basket = 15 minutes. My day is already choreographed with the same precision as the Lion King performer who transforms from wart hog to giraffe in less than one minute (Confused? See yesterday's post).
How, with three boys, a job, a blog that's on the move, and all the other commitments involved with being a wife, homeowner, friend, daughter, sister, and volunteer can I possibly add "author" to my list?
Impossible.
Enter, M.J. Ryan. "Each of us has the choice as to how we spend our time. But it's really easy to tell ourselves it's not our choice, especially when it involves some new habit or dream that takes energy to bring into being." Ryan admits that finding the time is not easy. Reading her chapter was a little like listening to her say,
"Claudia, writing your book might require sacrifice. It might include writing before you go to bed instead of watching Anderson Cooper; using vacation time to write chapters instead of hopping on a plane and visiting family or friends; spending less time on daily blog posts; making a contractual agreement with yourself not to send a single package until January 2011; or finally accepting that the socks are never going to get sorted."
Ryan reminds us, "Time is one of our most precious resources. Even if you can carve out only fifteen minute a day to devote to your new habit, that's ninety one hours over the course of a year."
Visit us in the Community Forum section labeled M.J. Ryan and tell us what time choices you need to make so you can have what you really want this year?
Shining off until tomorrow...
This weekend I saw The Lion King on Broadway for the second time. It is a right of passage in the Beeny house, upon your sixth birthday. I was the lucky one escorting Matthew.
Is it possible that the most thrilling part of The Lion King could be the part that you and I and the rest of the audience never sees?
A family friend, and member of The Lion King staff, treated Matthew and me to a back stage tour after the show on Saturday. I would be hard pressed to tell you which experience I found more thrilling: the show or the behind-the-scenes tour.
The show is spectacular. It is everything you would expect from a Disney movie turned musical - especially when directed by Julie Taymor and with music and lyrics by Sir Elton John. The costumes are a feast for the eyes, the dance is inspiring, and within the first five minutes the entire audience is 100% enveloped in the experience as safari animals descend down the isles and onto the stage.
But behind the scenes did you know...
Each actor is appointed a professional staff person whose only job is to help him transition in and out of costumes? Costume changes are so well synchronized that each happens in less than a minute (including the giraffes who must get on ladders to enter their costumes!); Costumes, that will only ever be viewed from hundreds of feet away, and in dimmed lights, are handmade with intricate bead work? Costume designers make weekly repairs to costumes; Everything back stage is perfectly organized and labeled with each performer's name? Each cast member has a designated space for changing, which is the only way this cast of 80+ performers with hundreds of costume changes, and massive props could ever hope to get the job done in such cramped quarters?; and, Every prop has a designated place back stage, some of which is hanging from pulleys in the ceiling?
Behind the scenes of The Lion King is a spectacle!
For every ounce of attention given to the show itself, there must be at least an equal amount of attention given to pulling this show off without a (visible) hitch... seven days a week. It is easy to take for granted the right performer showing up on stage at the right time. That is, until now. Saturday I saw choreography of a whole other sort. I saw committed staff weaving in and out of one another, making sure that props were in place and that performers were dressed. Just like Pete, the recipient from Saturday's Yellow Envelope Project, these cast hands worked as if their life depended on it... all so someone else could shine.
It got me thinking.
How many of you are stage hands, working behind the scenes to make sure your principal performers look good and are on cue? Visit us in the Community Forum labeled, Today's Post. Give us a backstage tour of your life. What are the mechanics involved in making your star performers shine?
Shining off until tomorrow...