It Really Does Take a Village!

I am regularly reminded that it really does take a village! Most recently I was reminded of this by the outpouring of support that I have received from friends – near and far, old and new, and even from ones I haven’t met personally, yet have through, yep, you guessed it, none other than Facebook – for my Rappel against Cancer! I signed up to do this wild and crazy rappel “Denver Over the Edge” (http://www.denverovertheedge.com/) – off a 31 story building (1600 Glenarm) in Denver, CO on July 8, 2011 to benefit the Colorado Cancer League (www.cancerleague.org). This is the third annual but my first time - http://www.denverovertheedge.com/Pilar_Stella/!

I was inspired to do so for many reasons. First, in the last year, I have met a couple of people through my efforts to find investors for my company OneGiving (http://www.onegiving.com/) who had done the rappel in 2009 and 2010. When I heard about it in 2010, just a few weeks after the event, I thought to myself, I want to do that. One of the individuals I met who did it is a man named Shane Feiman who told me of his story of the rappel and how he did it together with his wife Amy. He is inspiring and has become an amazing friend and advocate in some of my own professional and personal journeys…he is doing it again this year - http://www.denverovertheedge.com/shane_feiman/.

A few months later I met a woman, Courtney Mizel - who had survived breast cancer and had done the event in 2010 after surviving cancer. She is a bright, passionate and spunky woman who reminded me a lot of myself and I instantly took a liking to her! During the first year of the event she was in cancer treatment, chemo, radiation and the rest of it and had a good friend of hers rappel in honor of her and the second year, last year, she did it with him together as a survivor! I was touched! She is doing it again this year - we are doing it together... http://www.denverovertheedge.com/Courtney_Mizel/!

A while later, both Shane and Courtney had told me I needed to meet a man named Gary that we would really hit it off. When I met with him, I realized that he was the guy who had rappelled in honor of Courtney the year in 2009 and with her in 2010. This year he is doing it again and http://www.denverovertheedge.com/gary_reece/ together with all of us. Gary is the President of the Cancer League, and his wife was the President before him. The Colorado Cancer League is a fully volunteer organization.

I feel so grateful to be able to participate in such an exciting adventure with people who have such depth of spirit, passion, purpose and compassion and live their lives to the fullest with respect for others and honoring themselves in each and every moment. I feel lucky and humbled to join them this year!

In addition to doing it because I was inspired by others, I decided to do it as a symbol and reminder to myself of all the fears, challenges – personal and professional, physical and mental –and obstacles that I have overcome in my journey. In my 20’s I over came many health scares – including early stage melanoma and cervical cancer – among other things.

For a period of time my health challenges got the best of my mental state of being. Until one day I woke up and realized that it was all in my attitude. I was feeling defeated and wondered if I really wanted to be living or not. It took me a while to choose in. But when I realized I did want to be here, I chose in – fully, wholly, completely! I decided to move forward in my life and take each breath deeply, each step passionately and appreciate each moment fully! I chose in fully to life.

Doing this rappel reminds me of all of the fears and obstacles I have overcome in the past few years and in my life as well in my move to California to go after my dreams and life purpose. I am dedicated to living with courage, not cowering in front of my fears, but rather standing up to them and overcoming them. This rappel represents what I have overcome with my health, in my life and with my most recent challenges tied to starting my company OneGiving and living a life of purpose, passion and authenticity. I know that whatever comes of it all, I will be ok, no matter what…because I have my positive attitude and an outlook on life that finds the opportunity in even the hardest challenges. I hope that others too may know that they can really do anything they put their minds too…it is just about standing up to our fears and the unknown, believing and having the courage to keep going forward!

Probably most of all, I am reminded by moments like these how it really does take a village! I am soo grateful for all the friends, loved ones and even new people in my life, who have stepped up to support me in my endeavor – with words of love, encouragement, donations and more! At a moment in my life, that I needed just another little umph or push of support – I received it in abundance. I am grateful for the angels who have showed up throughout my life at just the right moments! I would never be where I am or whom I am without those words of encouragement!

Thank you to all of you who sent donations large and small…and words of support and encouragement even if you couldn’t donate. It didn’t matter if I received just a note or a $1 donation – every little bit counts! Thank you for reminding me of the wisdom and truth of our OneGiving tag line – The Power of ONE has the Strength of Many! Remember that the next time you doubt for a minute that you are all alone…just reach out, look around and take time to support and cultivate your Village!

Many thanks to…Trish, Goodspeed & Merrill, Myrna, Ben, Ivana & Jon, Scott, Kim, Mariah, Debbie & Dave, Susan, Maryna, Tina, Cynthia, Francine, Faradee, Martin, Mark, Patrick, Melanie, Drew & Zach, Deb, John & Ashlee, Arthur, Jodi, Farzad & Parandis, Jack & The Jaffe Family Foundation, Terry, Phyllis, Leslie, Jennifer, Elisabeth & Jeff, Shane, Courtney, Gary, Kay, Sandi, George, Carrie, Naina, Ryan, Reshma, Francoise, George, Elizabeth, Baeth, Kerry…and so many more of you!

If anyone still wants to donate…you are more than welcome to go to: http://www.denverovertheedge.com/Pilar_Stella/! Let it inspire you and represent your commitment to fighting cancer and/or overcoming all of your fears and obstacles and living life to the fullest!

In peace, love and gratitude ;) p

Inspired, Inspiring, Inspirational!

Every day I wake up excited at the idea of how I will be inspired today! I wrote an article a few months ago for Inspire Me Today's blog about inspiration.
http://www.inspiremetoday.com/archiveDisp.php?type=0&ref=789

I regularly have friends, colleagues and even total strangers thank me for inspiring them. I thank them back and remind them that they inspire themselves and others.

If you start with "I", InspIratIon leads to magic, miracles and dreams beyond your wildest imagination. ~ Pilar Stella

Seriously though, we all have a choice...between fear and love, joy and pain, negativity and positivity. I have lived my life in the negative and it didn't really work that well. I was angry, sick and honestly pretty darn miserable.

So I had a choice to CHOOSE IN to life, really choose in, or to choose out. While I still may have bad days or even bad things happen to me, today, I choose in fully to my life and every day I look for little reminders, little nuggets of inspiration to keep me going.

Probably one of my biggest inspirations are youth! The youth of today have a long road ahead of correcting the mistakes that our generation and past generations have created - with environmental, social and economic trials. Yet, they are a generation that continues to push for green solutions, to give globally and to speak out for equality, justice and freedom.

I go surfing with young adults from inner city LA and while their lives are not always filled with brightness, they bring a spirit that inspires passion, excitement and joy in me every time I am with them. I leave renewed, refilled and rejuvenated - grateful for all that I have.

They remind me to choose in, every day. They remind me to take action, when I am dissatisfied or frustrated with the way things are. They remind me to never ever give up with the hope, passion and courage that they live their lives with in every moment.

So for this fall season, I leave you with a few videos that have inspired me and reminded me to NEVER EVER GIVE UP and to keep inspiring others and being inspired! May we all live in peace, love and joy! Enjoy!

Maya Angelou and Still I Rise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0&feature=related

William McDonough: The Wisdom of Designing Cradle to Cradle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoRjz8iTVoo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nick Vujicic: I Love Living Life. I am Happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo_24_qTNac&feature=related

Now is the Time. MLK, Jr. Sings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0F4iXEzOqY

The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0

Thank you for inspiring me and reminding me to keep going in the pursuit of my dreams. When you fail, try and try again until you get there...because you WILL get there!

Passion, Patience and Persistence!

Patience, Passion and Persistence...The three P's of success! ~ Unknown

As many who know me know, I have been working on creating a company, dream and vision for a few years now and it has been a combination of these three P's that have kept me going. These three P's are truly the recipe for success and they don't always come easily, but as I am starting to really get, they sure do pay off in the end.

Passion.
Passion is doing what you love, following your heart, believing that anything is possible and not stopping until you see your dreams come to fruition. I have had many people in my life tell me how lucky I am that I am so passionate about what I do and that I know what I am passionate about. I have always been passionate. But I haven't always known what I am passionate about or had the courage to follow my heart and live my passions.

At some point, my life got so dark, that something inside me just snapped. Something changed and I couldn't go back any more. I have always been passionate about making a difference and have felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. For a long time, I was passionate in negative ways. I was angry at the world when people didn't get it and didn't do good things to make a difference. Most likely that outer anger and frustration was merely a reflection of my own frustration with myself for not acting upon my passions and my convictions to make the world a better place.

I do feel lucky that I am passionate. I feel even luckier today that I am pursuing my passions, living my dream and not apologizing for doing so or shrinking away because of what others think or tell me I should or shouldn't do.

For some it takes time to find your passion, but don't ever give up until you do. Then when you do, go for it! Go after it, with courage, conviction and determination and you will never again feel that emptiness, that longing, that anger or frustration, as you did when you shut it off, ignored it, buried it or stuffed it!

Patience.
Ah yes, patience! I think this is for sure the most difficult for me. I was definitely not raised to be patient. None of us are in this "gotta have it now" society. That coupled with my Italian upbringing, ha, I was doomed! Patience, what's that?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am learning what patience really is and to trust the process. My journey in creating OneGiving has been one BIG lesson in patience - really! From not being able to pay people what they are worth or even anything at all and having to wait until the things that I want or need done for OneGiving to get done until the other things on their priority list get done to seeing how something connects but having to wait until others make that connection for it to come to fruition, I am learning patience with every step.

I am learning how to be grateful for everything that comes and even accepting that it will come on it's own time if it is meant to. With patience comes a higher faith and trust that everything works out as it is meant to and the more grateful I am, the more amazing things show up. I am also finding that with patience comes the mysterious unfolding of the universe. That is, so often I want things to hurry up and happen. Yet, when they don't happen initially, but I am patient, they often unfold in ways far beyond and even better than what my conscious mind could ever have come up with. As I see this happening more and more, I am able to detach from the ways in which I want or expect it to come and am reminded to remain patient to see what magic will come about!

Persistence.
I think that this is something I have always been good at. Probably, sometimes to the maddening of others around me. I remember my first job out of college, I had heard about a clinic that I wanted to work at. So I contacted the director and called him regularly every few weeks before I graduated to ask if there were any openings. Every time, he would say, "Call me a few weeks before you graduate and we will see." When my spring break came about, I called and asked if I could come meet him. He said yes, but that he wouldn't know about a position until later that spring/summer. When he interviewed me, he told me that there would be a probationary period and if it didn't work out, then what would I do after having moved to a new location. I looked at him and said, "I guess go get another job." It was that simple.

He told me years later that he finally hired me, after months of contact and many calls and follow ups, because he said that if I was that persistence in getting hired, he couldn't imagine how persistent I would be in actually doing my job!

I remembered that for many years and it is has been a guiding principle for everything I do. It has sometimes driven people crazy. When I pre-released my first books, I took my years of experience in advocacy campaigns and created an advocacy campaign of my own. I created thousands of post cards with the covers of my book on them and had them addressed to Oprah Winfrey. I gave them out to people all over and asked them to mail them in and write an additional note if they desired. Finally, one day I got a call from Oprah's assistant. She said that they had received all of my postcards, that they knew about my books, and that I didn't need to send any more! I laughed. So maybe she didn't ask me to be on her show, but it certainly did get their attention.

I am still learning to find the nuances of being persistence and bugging the crap out of people. Ultimately, I am not convinced that either one is bad, because as long as your intentions are pure and you are passionate and patient with the process, the persistence will pay off.

As long as we remember to NEVER GIVE UP and to keep going with our dreams passionately, courageously and with persistence and to have the patience to allow it all to unfold as it is meant to and more magnificently than we could have ever imagined possible, we will surely succeed in the ways that matter most!

You can find me at www.facebook.com/pilarstella and www.facebook.com/pilarstella1 and twitter @pilarstella.