A Dose Of My Own Medicine…
// February 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Restore
The last couple of weeks have been interesting, to say the least! I’ve built I Am Waters Foundation; discreetly over the past year with the help of a wonderful board, without whom, there would be no foundation. Except for those few, I hadn’t shared it with anyone except my sister, two close girlfriends and my husband. It was a well-kept secret up until February 1st.
Additionally, I had never Facebooked, Tweeted, Vimeod, Youtubed, or stepped foot into the viral world. Although, I had heard plenty about how great it was through my computer savvy friends, this was uncharted territory for me.
Over the past two or so weeks, I’ve gone from being a somewhat spiritual; take life on life’s terms and use it as guidance for what’s trying to emerge through me, kinda gal. Coupled with a core philosophy that life has a life of it’s own and needs us to live it and the things that go “wrong” in life are really to get us on the path for which we were meant. At this age and at this point in my life, I apply this without much thought. Well, that was up until 17 days ago!
Today I’m glued to a computer, haranguing people to vote and incessantly checking where on the Pepsi Refresh Everything roster I’ve risen to (or not). Quite honestly, at this point, I’m wondering how a little ol’ submission to a seemingly simple contest has thrust me into a massive marketing and viral campaign since 12:01 AM Feb 1st; whilst getting the snot beat out of me by the Girl Scouts.
I’ve been indoctrinated into the world of VIRAL over the past 17 days to the extent that I have stretch marks on my cheeks from the G-force. That’s right. I’m just now getting “IT”. I see that while I was home over the past 15 years cutting the edges off of my kids sandwiches, a whole world has emerged inside the box that sits atop my desk; which I’m currently in a deep existential conflict with.
I find myself wandering from person to person (as though I forgot where I last parked my car) Asking, “Do you do viral stuff?” “Do you know how to make this set of words and pictures head out into thin air and bring back the desired results?”
My praying and meditating have been replaced with endless rumination on numbers, stats, Google Analytics and sending friendly reminders to the wonderful people that vote for I Am Waters to continue to do so; although I must admit, I feel like a stalker, albeit, a friendly one.
Today was the day that I had to say to myself STOP!! Just stop! Don’t move, don’t think, just stop! How are you going to get back on the path of calm and peace that you live on most of the time? After posing the question to myself a couple of times (while simultaneously fighting the urge to check Facebook or what number we held in the contest) the thought that came was “you could vote for the Girl Scouts and do more consistently for others what you would like done for you. VOTE! The other charities in the contest are important and wonderful!
The second part of the answer was to start putting into action in my own life, the words on the bottles of water. Yeah, remember the words, Elena…you know the ones; LOVE, HOPE, FAITH, and PEACE. I know these are to inspire the homeless, to restore a sense of belonging to oneself, God and a sense of community and internal Peace and Calm.
But they are words that will guide us all back to our center point, and words (the right ones) will always make everyone feel better, no matter what we look like, where we are, who we are, how we feel about ourselves and each other. Simple words that have a big impact on how I see and feel about things, right now in this very moment. So, I’m off to my computer, but with a shift in perspective. Whom may I vote for? Who’s cause can I help further? This I know will deliver me back to my peace path!
