Welcome again to Asulon Collective!
In the opening blog, Introducing Asulon Collective, I talked about how we have an opportunity to be a place of refuge for one another– even in the midst of disappointment, loneliness, or pain. In Gerard’s blog a couple of weeks ago he talked about how this was exactly the place where acts of kindness and creativity were birthed in his life.
As a brief reminder from that first blog:
What am I doing with these opportunities?
How am I impacting your sphere of influence?
How do people experience me every day?Becoming a safe place, and being a safe place for another person does not happen overnight. It takes the process of building a trustworthy relationship. It requires discernment, consistency, and reliability. It doesn’t mean you’ll always agree on everything, but it does mean that love and respect will be active within disagreement. This work is done one word, one action at a time.
Introducing Asulon Collective
Imagine a word taking form and becoming a verb, turning into action.
If you are someone who relishes this thought, it may feel overwhelming as you wonder if real impact is actually being made. Or maybe you’re naturally a little more reserved, so this feels uncomfortable or even scary.
Consider though, the times that someone smiled at you or showed a random act of kindness and it turned your whole day around or at least encouraged you. We have all had these experiences – whether great or small. In the midst of the deepest despair there is opportunity for piercing hope to shine through. These moments can truly have such significance that we may never know.
For that reason, Asulon Collective is going to begin providing monthly challenges for the community here to engage in collectively!
In the beginning this may seem unnatural or stretching, but I encourage you to push through that for the end result; just like when getting ready to work out, stretching is vitally important. You won’t be alone – I will be doing this alongside you all too. We are in this together and we are just warming up! The more you practice, the better you’ll get.
SO, how will this work?
Each month we will announce a new monthly challenge on social media so make sure to be on the lookout. Then, all throughout the month we will encourage you to actively participate, engage, and BE a refuge to someone through these specific opportunities.
The motivation behind this is to act from a genuine desire to be an example of refuge, to genuinely seek to encourage those around us and extend love freely to others.
If you take a photo, tag us! But more important than capturing the moment is your interaction with that person. See them; listen to them; be with them.
Lastly, we’d love to hear your experience or story! Submit one sentence up to a paragraph to be compiled into that month’s stories for a possible feature on the blog at the end of the month.
We may all have different capacity, strengths, or resources, but we can put forth collective effort, which equals bigger impact! One word, one action at a time will require patience and consistency, but it will be worth it to see progress over time.
Another look back to our first blog:
My hope is that we would have open hearts and listening ears; that we would experience fun times where memories are made and dare to share the depths of our souls with one another; that we would choose love and do generous acts that meet practical needs.
Introducing Asulon Collective
You are loved and your life is valuable, and you are worthy of that love. More people need to hear this and experience this on a consistent basis, and so with that in mind we prepare for these challenges to show that love and value to each other.
We can make this world a sweeter, brighter place. Together, we can impact lives; so let’s prepare ourselves to connect with those in front of us in our homes and communities!
Edited by: Alida Cassinari, @hacassinari
Photo Credit: @javier1997mo via Unsplash
