2006-11-27

Another spectacular Indian Summer day greeted me as I got the paper this morning. After Morning Offering, Jim went off for a very full day of putting various customers’ lawns to bed and putting down mulch in a large estate’s front and back yards. I came upstairs to work more on the Preface for The Book of Days. I got that finalized as a rough draft and sent it off to Ian, who is producing this volume for L/L Research.

Jean-Claude called with two items of news, one here-and-now and one a new initiative for service. The practical detail was an offer from him and Bill H to match any funds donated to us between now and the end of the year, up to $5,000.00. it is a most generous offer and one of which I hope we can take good advantage, as our costs are quite high, compared to those years when I did all the admin work, all the bookkeeping and everything whatsoever to do with L/L Research myself. We have grown in projects and numbers of people writing to us and so forth, and at this point, if I attend to the Inbox and do the bookkeeping, I never, ever, get to a creative project. So that matching funds drive will net us six months’ worth of money to pay the admin and bookkeeper.

Things cost more money now – we all experience this! And not just staffing costs. Oh my! The cost of printing books and keeping them in print; the cost of mailing; web site costs; the substantial cost of our new broadcasting project – so many costs which any business bears – all those costs have increased.

We need to find a way to create a stable donation stream. I keep writing books, but they do not make enough money to float L/L’s expenses. I am sure that this matter of supply will resolve itself, and I just hope to help the process along. Perhaps I will find a volunteer who would like to set up the machinery for accepting yearly pledges. So many non-profits do operate from a pledge base. And I know we have many people who feel that our work is worth supporting.

Also, there is grant money out there. Carol C. has just volunteered to look into possibilities for grant-writing for L/L. that is a good initiative to pursue.

By nightfall, Ian had put up the announcement on our home page of this matching grant offer. Here’s hoping!

Jean-Claude had talked for quite a while about his new project and asked me to get in touch with Sandie Sedgbeer, who edits two excellent e-zines, Planet Light Worker and Children of the New Earth, as he would like to talk with her also about this new initiative he’s cooking up, out there in California’s high desert. He would like to include both of us in the formation of a large web site which is intended to act as a great big virtual home for seekers. It’s a concept of epic proportions and very positive and pure in intent. I am very glad to be a part of it. I wrote Sandie at some length to fill her in.

The remainder of the afternoon, I spent catching up personal e-mail and clearing my desk, which had begun to stack up. I saved most personal letters to answer in Nebraska and got the desk clear just as Jim called bath time.

Jim and Gary had done a special project at St. Luke’s for Jim’s Lawn Service. The gutters there needed cleaning, and on the back side of the church, Jim’s 24’ ladder would not reach. A parishioner volunteered a 32’ ladder. Jim and Gary went and collected it and then wielded it to get those gutters clear. Jim said there was no way he could have handled it on his own! Go Gary!

Jim came back and got his maintenance done with still some light left, so went back up on our roof and finished most of the remaining Christmas lighting. Now the front and the back of the house have their architectural roof lines illuminated. It is really pretty, and I get a special treat, too! In the office up here, and at the end of the upstairs hall, Jim has pulled the ends of the lighting in to the house to plug them in. so I have Christmas lights in my office, spilling their pretty beams across the floor. It is a lovely effect. It feels so Christmassy! And I do love this season of special times, family gatherings and remembrance of the source of true light, that unconditional love that is surrounded by darkness, yet which cannot be overcome.

After our bath, Jim and I spent a very quiet evening, offering the Gaia Meditation with me praying at the end and seeking our beds around 11 PM.