#generosityday

For me, February 14 is like any other day because I don't have a boyfriend or a significant other to spend it with (I'm not complaining though).  While every couple is out on a romantic date, I'm either bumming at home or hanging out with friends. 

I decided that this Valentine's Day, I was going to do something different. Why? Because of this article that I read on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130212163742-6200057-why-you-should-make-this-valentine-s-day-different . The author coined the term "Generosity Day," which is a day of giving, whether it is one's time, love, talent, money, or anything special that one has to offer.  I decided to get my hands dirty and give my time to achieving a cleaner and greener environment. Three days before Valentine's Day, I had signed up to volunteer for the Canal Conservation Project, which just so happened to fall on Thursday the 14th. The task was to pick up litter along the Ashted Canal and use grapple hooks to pull out whatever we could find in the canal. The volunteers and I separated into pairs. I teamed up with a girl named Yoona and we were very successful with our findings!

Struggling to pull up Item #1 ..

Oh look, it's a wooden fence!

2 minutes after my first find.. I pulled this out of the canal. -pats on the back-

"WHOA, that's huge!" My shocked / proud look.

Everyone's findings piled together :)

That orange mini cone at the front gave me and Yoona such a hard time. We spent around 20 minutes trying to get it out of the canal. At one point, I almost fell into the canal as I was reaching out to grab the cone. Thank god I didn't!

❤ Happy Generosity Day! ❤

 Though traditionally, today is Valentine's Day, we are rebooting it as Generosity Day: "One day of sharing love with everyone, of being generous to everyone, to see how it feels and to practice saying “Yes.” Let’s make the day about love, action and human connection – because we can do better than smarmy greeting cards, overpriced roses, and stressed-out couples trying to create romantic meals on the fly." [GenerosityDay]

Today, it's simple...just be generous

All you have to do is say YES to all genuine requests for help all day long! 

Today, our request is for you to consider downloading a song to benefit a cause.  We have a wide variety of musical artists who have generously uploaded their original music to help raise funds for many charity non-profits. These charity organizations range from animal rescue to children with cancer, and from non-profits helping the homeless to ones rebuilding lives of victims of sex trafficking.

We even have a song from one of our new artists, Kevin T. Norris, specifically for someone special, called 'Valentine Baby'. Kevin has left this song open, which means that you all can choose which charity benefits from your song donation! 

  YOU Can Change a Life - It All Starts With A Song ❤ GenuineCaring.com

  TWITTER: @genuinecaring | @genuine_charity | @genuine_music

FB: http://is.gd/GenuineCaring

G+ gplus.to/GenuineCaring

Kevin T. Norris... Originally from Long Island, NY, Kevin moved to Bethlehem, PA in 1982, where he established a full-time musical career performing with various show, variety, country, and jazz bands-including 9 years with the successful regional show/Top 40 band "KIK", in venues from the resorts of the Pocono Mountains to the Jersey Shore.

 Over the years, Kevin has had the privilege to share the stage with, open for, or perform for such notable personalities as Burt Bacharach, Frank Foster, Bill Watrous, Tom Scott, Bill Cosby, Michael McDonald, Bernie Chiaravalle, Bob James, Nathan East, Harvey Mason, Neil Stubenhaus, Sergio Bellotti, Robben & Anne Ford, Charlie Daniels, Aztec Two-Step, Jett Williams, Peter Marsh, David Pringle, Rex Long, and many others.

In addition to his musical pursuits, Kevin has established himself as a talent in the Voice Over industry. He has at least 8 audiobooks to his credit, along with numerous Music-On-Hold tracks, commercials, voice-prompt systems and volunteer studio text reading for the visually impaired.          

❤ Download Kevin's Song, 'Valentine Baby'  for someone special today - and YOU choose which charity gets your Valentine #GenerosityDay Donation! ❤

Read more about Kevin on his GenuineCaring Profile: http://ow.ly/94fbf

Kevin's Website: www.kevintnorris.com

Kevin on Facebook: Facebook.com/KTNorrisFanPage

Kevin's MySpace Page: MySpace.com/kevintnorris

GenuineCaring.com | Download Songs for a Cause. ❤

TWITTER: @genuinecaring | @genuine_charity | @genuine_music

FB: http://is.gd/GenuineCaring

G+ gplus.to/GenuineCaring

Giving Is... being generous.

This February 14th, we're joining in the cause to reboot Valentine's Day and opening our hearts in a new way. Instead of your basic chocolate and red roses, we're saying "yes" to everything coming our way. Join us today to discover a day with more meaning and connection. Let's make a movement of individuals that say "yes" and inspire change. Happy Generosity Day!

I didn't always get generosity. Sasha Dichter once ran a Generosity Experiment. For 30 days, he said yes to every request for help, for money, for anything from friends, people on the street, anyone. I loved the idea. I also thought it mildly crazy. I wanted to feel what he felt, but couldn't get comfortable with it. Giving is supposed to feel good theoretically. But in reality, sometimes I feel bad after giving. For instance, I often struggle with what is the right amount to donate to charity. Once I finally pick a number, I feel worse. I feel like I haven't given enough, but I also start wondering if that's really the best way to help. Is that really the best use of my money. 

Giving didn't make me feel better. It made me feel conflicted. 

In recent months, something changed, something clicked. I experienced acts of unexpected generosity that have led me to this: the giving must feel like receiving.

Generosity feels good to the giver only when we have the right intent. In too many instances, we have mixed intents. We want to be patted on the back. We worry about feeling good about being good. We wonder about the return on our generosity. I realized that mixed intents are what made me feel bad. For giving to feel right, we need to have the right intent. That comes about when the giving feels like we are receiving. 

If you've never had the opportunity to attend a Wednesday meditation session, it is quite a profound experience. The Mehta family plays host. They open their house to friends, strangers, anyone who comes by every week. They invest the time to build this community, to create this meditation space. Then they provide a satisfying dinner to every single guest. The fact that they do this entirely free of charge is already an amazing act of generosity. You feel wowed by how they've created this feeling of abundance. You feel gratitude to be able to be part of the evening. 

As if all that is not enough, we come to the part that really gets to me. Every week Nipun Mehta will basically say, we thank you for the opportunity to host this gathering. 

What?? It sounds like it could be some ridiculously corny line, except that these hosts mean it fully. They are the ones who have given so much every Wednesday evening, we are the receivers, and here they are saying thank you. To have to listen to a "thank you" of that magnitude after having received so much generosity is... it is almost too much. But you see, for this family, giving feels exactly like receiving.

I have no idea how you get there. All I could think was, these people have seriously figured something out. I want that. That is the kind of generosity I seek in myself every time I give.

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