surreal volunteering

2022 Donation Guide

2022-01-09T13:04:00.002-07:00

Deciding what to donate to this year was a challenge. My spouse and I both had pneumonia during November and December, leading to the past few months being very inward-focused. As we begin thinking about this in the past two weeks, our thoughts kept returning to our local community, what we love about it, and where there are areas that could use support.

We selected 4 established nonprofits & 4 Seattle causes on Go Fund Me.

Our four selections on Go Fund me:

· Help Lindsay get a wheelchair!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-lindsay-get-a-wheelchair?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

· Help Lazy Cow Bakery Open It's Fremont Location

https://www.gofundme.com/f/lazycowbakery?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

· POST84 Fundraiser

https://www.gofundme.com/f/post84-fundraiser?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

· Funeral & Memorial Fund for Willie Shiflet

https://www.gofundme.com/f/funeral-memorial-fund-for-willie-shiflet?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Our four established organizations

· American Red Cross - Seattle

https://www.redcross.org/

· Ballard Food Bank

https://ballardfoodbank.networkforgood.com/

· Sustainable Ballard

https://www.sustainableballard.org/donate-today/

· NPR KUOW

https://www.kuow.org/support

"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people." -Rosa Parks.

Valentine's Snowday

2021-02-13T21:42:00.004-07:00

The first real snow in Seattle was pure magic.

Growing up in the midwest, we enjoyed the snow, but it was an infrequent occurrence when the whole community all went outside to play in the snow on the same day.

Snow in Seattle brought everyone outside

The cafes were busy with takeout orders, fire pits were on sidewalks across the city.

Valentines decorations looked enchanting under the fresh snow

Skiing on the streets, sledding down every hill, snowshoeing across the parks and a few snowboarders creating jumps on driveways.

As I continue to explore my new city today, I ventured along the snow-covered streets up Phinny Ridge and around Green Lake embracing the winter excitement.

Localized adventures

2021-02-06T14:26:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks have brought me more localized in my adventures.

Trips to Seattle park spaces have included:

Ballard Locks

Sunset Park

Golden Gardens Park

Seaward Park

Thyme Patch Park

24th Ave Public Dock

Coleman Park

and today, into Shoreline to visit Richmond Beach Saltwater Park

2021 Donation Guide

2021-01-03T00:17:00.001-07:00

My favorite tradition of the new year and thinking about how we want to make philanthropic decisions for the next year.

Last year, the donations at the start of the year was an incredibly good idea. I had made a resolution that I would learn more about water in 2020. In a year that had so many priorities and challenges the urgency of climate and water challenges often fell to the side. Due to our January donations and my new found time to read books I ended 2020 having accomplished my goals. I had helped keep climate action groups going and I personally had learned more about water.

See our 2020 Donation Post here: https://surrealvolunteering.blogspot.com/2020/01/2020-donation-guide.html

This year we had long conversations about what we wanted to do this year. We quickly agreed that we wanted to support BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women.

Starting with the traditional charity idea, I did some reading and had a few important takeaways.

- Equity, thinking about how our modest donations could help tip the scales towards greater equity.
- Due to historic inequities in funding, voices (ideas, stories, businesses, inventions) from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women have not had an equitable chance.
- The donor designation dynamic has created limitations.
- The need to not only create direct charity programs but to go deeper, thinking root cause and how to support that. Is it advocacy, education, employment, wealth creation?

Reflecting on this, I started to think about small investments in startups. Finding startup founders who identified as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or female. Explored a few apps (Republic & WeFunder), both had a good selection of businesses. The drawback came down to that these would be donations that we would potentially be engaged with for many years, any startup that got off the ground, we would be an early investor of. This multi-year management was not for us at this time.

I pivoted to exploring Donors Choose, looking at classroom funding. How to invest in the education of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and girls. I have used this platform in past years for donating and genuinely enjoyed the experience. I came across some great projects, that helped me understand that this year I actually want to donate to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women businesses/creations. (Classic example of donors' feelings above anything else being the driver for donations).

So tonight we landed on Kickstarter as the platform for this year's donations. We each had an equal dollar amount and with the guidelines of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women we started searching. The goal here was not to fund things that we wanted or thought would be successful. Not to judge if the proposal or plan was good. Only to find ideas lead by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or women, where they are who we are supporting.

We ended with a HUGE array of ideas that we backed.

Shop Sugar Clothing https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kieshab/shop-sugar-expanding

Valleto Dance https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/valleto2020/valleto-2020-performance-and-beyond

Rofhiwa Book Store https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2025896590/rofhiwa-book-cafe-a-book-and-coffee-spot-for-east-durham

Antarktikos Magazine https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antarktikos/antarktikos-magazine

Aseda - Artist & Musician https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wmwio/wake-me-when-its-over-an-ep-by-aseda-safoa

Urban Dreams, Music and Art program https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/key2dakingdom/give-us-the-steam-to-power-our-dream

Sam - Comic Artist https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mushki/mixed-0

Jank - Debut Album https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janksetup/jank-setup-debut-album-look-whos-talking

Krafty Kravings Cookie Company https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kraftykravings/krafty-kravings

LGBT Cat Pins https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/faeryphos/lgbt-cat-enamel-pins

Black-Owned Radio Station https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/247blackradio/rhode-islands-black-owned-radio-station

Alma Ocean Kiddy Pools https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/almaocean/alma-ocean?ref=discovery&term=pool

A bunny sweatshirt https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xpinkwolfy/x-bunny-oversized-jacket?ref=discovery&term=sweatshirts

A diverse writer residency https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/therealauthorfactory/author-factory-a-writing-oasis-for-diverse-writers

A solar charging system https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398120161/solar-cow-school-teleporter?ref=discovery&term=solar%20cow

I continue to volunteer a few hours each month with the Red Cross and we have recently begun to explore other volunteer opportunities in the area, hope to add additional organizations to our volunteering list this year.

As in years past the goal of sharing these is to help shine additional light into the work being done and to hopefully encourage you to make a positive impact as part of your plan for 2021.

Day Hike a Cedar Butte

2020-12-12T12:16:00.001-07:00

Hiking is one of my favorite COVID safe activities. Last weekend I set my alarm on Saturday AM to get to Iron Horse state park before 10am. The trail for the day was Cedar Butte and it was spectacular!

Parking was no problem, the state park lot had lots of spaces on this December morning. There is also a non state park lot that I drove past, not sure what if any permits are needed to park there.

The weather was incredibly nice, mid 50's, Sunny and the occasional gusty breeze.

The Cedar Butte trail has add on options, I added an extra mile at the very start on a very wide/ flat trail to warm up and did an additional 1/2 mile add on the way down, bringing my total miles to 5.

I was able to keep a good distance from others on the warm-up and way up the Butte. Heading down the trail did start to become more crowded. I was glad to see the majority of people were wearing masks and it was easy enough to step off the trail to let people pass.

Pictures from my hike:

The park is only a 45min drive from our house, allows dogs, and has miles and miles of railroad grade trails for walking or biking. I am sure I'll be back to explore more.

See the full hike description here: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/cedar-butte

Virtual Family Scavenger Hunt

2020-12-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Our family, like many, have tried several Family Zoom calls to help create connections during our physical distancing due to COVID.

They have been ok, I personally, am glad we keep trying but have found them less than I would hope. The three things I have noticed are:

1. Its a lot of people (11, including 2 kids under 5).

2. The conversations don't flow super well (A side effect of the group call).

3. It is hard for everyone to be engaged.

One of my brothers and I started to brainstorm on something fun or different to try. The result was a virtual family scavenger hunt.

I built a quick PowerPoint deck to lay out the idea & then shared the slides with everyone. We allowed for 15 days from launch to zoom call, that way each household could do the hunting on their own time.

Giving back is something that is incredibly important to me, so added in that those who did not complete the hunt would donate to the Seattle Homeless Outreach.

I created a scavenger hunt list that had a COVID life flair & combined riddle clues and some that were just things to find.

Over the next few weeks, everyone e-mailed the pictures to me and I created a PowerPoint slide deck with the submissions

The Sunday after we wrapped up the scavenger hunt we had a family zoom call where I shared the PowerPoint slides.

Albeit with some minor technical difficulties, it was a fun way to guide the conversation, kept people engaged, and gave a logical chance for everyone to be part of the conversation.

It was a success and has opened up the possibilities of trying more things other than just chatting via Zoom as we continue to navigate staying home and staying safe.

A COVID Day Trip to Renton WA

2020-11-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend, as we have several other weekends, in one of our more frequent COVID activities we headed to a community we had not visited yet, Renton WA. Renton is a bit of a drive from Seattle, perhaps 25 min south on I5.

What brought us down this weekend was to visit the gravesite and memorial of Jimi Hendrix. An interesting spot to walk around on this rainy weekend afternoon.

The cemetery where Jimi is buried has some elements that we have not seen before, including a large section that is heavily Asian design influenced. This made sense when we learned that Renton has over 25% of the population who identify as Asian/ Pacific Islander.

Taking advantage of the cultural influence we had Sushi Rolls for lunch (Take out that we ate in our car parked in a slightly wooded parking area).

We drove around the commercial areas for a bit, spotted a sonic, and stoped in for some happy hour drinks before heading home.

In terms of COVID safety, the adventure was a success, We had only brief (less than 3 min) encounters with people while getting our food & sonic.

It was good to get out of our apartment and neighborhood and enjoyed the chance to see some Washington history & learn a bit more about our neighboring city of Renton.

Wonder filled Washington walk in West Seattle

2020-10-04T19:59:00.004-06:00

With COVID continuing to be part of our lives and looking to discover new parts of the new home we ventured to West Seattle to wander, walk and discover.

While we have heard about the beach town vibe and fun by Aliki beach we opted for something that we hoped would give us more social distancing.

The first stop was a Mexican food truck to get to-go for lunch. Taquito Feliz was excellent. Good outdoor ordering, with social distancing, ample hand sanitizer, and the staff was all wearing masks. The food was on point, I had a quesadilla and my partner had a combination taco plate.

We found parking just a block away from the taco truck (co-located with the 76 gas station) and were quickly able to jump on the Lincoln Park trail system heading down a large number of earthen stairs to arrive at the waterfront.

The waterfront has a good number of benches and picnic tables, we were easily able to secure a bench overlooking the beach to enjoy our lunch. The bonus was that the park has many trash cans that we could put our trash in when we were done!

We easily sat and enjoyed the sounds of the waves, birds, and people walking their dogs for over an hour before we continued our journey, walking along the waterfront and taking a more gradual path back up the hill to our car.

Self wellness has been a focus of mine since May 2020. Over the past few months, I have been trying to determine if we could get a massage and still mind COVID safety. After a few google searches, I was able to find a spa that was offering patio (outdoor), masks on, chair massages. I booked those for our weekend west Seattle day. After we left Lincoln park we drove about 10min over to the Seaview neighborhood.

The 30min chair massage was relaxing, I felt COVID safe being outdoors and enjoyed the unique experience of relaxing while hearing the sounds of the city, with a combination of essential oils and that light drizzle Seattle smell rounding out my senses.

After my 30min chair massage, it was my partner's turn. I explored the neighborhood around the spa, starting with a chai latte from the coffee shop down the street, window shopped the local bookseller, and did a few blocks of neighborhood walking, bringing me back to the patio of the spa to round out my 30min.

Verdict: West Seattle is a great place to explore while keeping COVID safety in mind. I fully expect that we will venture back to check out other communities across this large portion of the city.

On the cusp of change.

2020-09-14T11:27:00.000-06:00

Reflections are written and delayed posting not a reflection of current status, but a window into a past moment.

Five months ago I began exploring my next step. Three weeks ago we decided to prioritize our health, lifestyle, and location. I decided I would give my notice. This weekend I wrote it.

I am taking a huge leap, one I have not done in over a decade. I am jumping into the world not sure what I will find.

I am not sure what I will do.

I am not sure I know how I will fill my time.

I am not sure the person I am outside of my work self.

I am roller-coaster through emotions, at least 3-4 times a day.

I know that this is the right choice.

I know the journey is.

Exploring Seattle Neighborhoods - Ballard

2020-08-29T17:20:00.001-06:00

While COVID continues to redefine my world I took an opportunity to explore the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.

Ballard has a nice downtown area with restaurants, shops, and bars. None of those met my vision of a COVID safe exploration.

Looking at the health streets map, I discovered that 17th street is closed starting just a few blocks north of Marke Street.

Walking north on 17th I made my way up to 70th where I took a right and went 3 blocks (West) to Salmon Bay Park.

You could easily spend a few hours in this park playing on the playground, picnicking on blankets, or enjoying some outdoor Yoga.

From the park I headed down 21st street back towards Market street, winding my way over to the health street to finish my loop.

It was an effervescent afternoon exploring a new part of Seattle, safely outdoors, masked and distant from others.

9 days at a National Park during COVID19

2020-07-24T09:53:00.002-06:00

Due to a once in a lifetime opportunity, Ian and I had a 9-day window before either of us start our new jobs and when we had no appointments or obligations. After much discussion, we decided to take this opportunity to go on a much dreamed about trip to Yellowstone National Park. The challenge was how to do this during COVID 19.

We had significant conversations on if this was the right thing to do with the rapid spreading of COVID. One of the questions we have started to ask ourselves as we are navigating is what is the opportunity/ benefit to doing this and is there an alternate option available? We determined that a 9-day window to go to Yellowstone in the Summer might not present itself to us for another decade and that we would work to make choices that were COVID thoughtful during our trip.

We were far from perfect, overall our trip score was 6.2, on a 1 - 10 scale where 10 is the most COVID safe you can be.

How we decided to score:

Some of the scorings are our best estimate. We did not give ourselves any additional points for repeating places that we visited, times that we selected to have only one of us go into a place, or provide any scoring based on the length of time two things that studies are showing can impact the risks with COVID.

Not fully captured here is how often we selected not to do things because there were just too many people. Many of the iconic Yellowstone places we skipped and many of the fun tourist shops and activities we drove past knowing they would be a higher risk level than we wanted to take.

Here is the day by day, activity by activity break down.

We ended up being more COVID safe than I think we expected, but still under a level that I would recommend or suggest. If you're considering a trip similar to this a few areas that I think would have increased the score.

Groceries, snacks, and ice - more thoughtful meal planning could have prevented us from going into stores as often as we did.
Skip activities that have a busy parking area - these brought our scores down on many otherwise fairly safe activities.
Skip anything where you have to go inside. Without a statewide mask mandate we were often around many people without masks and inside this really increased our risk.

The real question is did we get sick from this trip? We have been home for 8 days now and neither of us has developed any symptoms. This does not show that we did not get it and are nonsymptomatic carriers or that we won't still develop symptoms over the next week. We have opted to not go out with friends this weekend as a mild self-quarantine after our trip.

How to fly safer during COVID19

2020-07-17T17:45:00.000-06:00

I used to fly 2-3 times a week pre COVID. Post COVID I have made 3 trips by air since in May/ June 2020 and based on my COVID tests did so successfully.

Two of my flights were with SouthWest and one with American.

If you have an option, pick SouthWest. They did a much better job than any other airline I saw. SouthWest was only selling 2/3 of the planes making extra room everywhere, extra room in the gate, extra room in the bathrooms, extra room in the airport shops, extra room at baggage claim, and very important extra room on the plane.

American was selling 9/10th of the seats, the empty seats were the very last row and in first class. The result was that everything was tighter, I don't think I was ever able to be 6ft away from another person during my flying experience.

Overall the 5 different US airports I visited were cleaner than before COVID. I wore a mask and was only asked to pull it down briefly when going through TSA security, other than that I was able to leave it on my whole trip.

Airports and Airlines have changing rules on mask-wearing by passengers, I recommend you look at these before making any plans. Denver had a $500 fine for anyone in the airport not wearing a maks, SouthWest required passengers to wear masks on flights. American was encouraging but not requiring.

On all three of my flights, the in-flight services (snacks and drinks) were greatly reduced, with no options. I did get water and a small bag of snacks on all the flights, the distribution varied each time.

I made some additions to my typical flying behavior due to COVID.

- I had a mask just for the airport/ on the plane. As soon as I exited the airport I switched to a fresh mask and put the used one in a plastic container to be disinfected at a later date.

- I brought my own disinfecting wipes (could not find them at the store so made some at home). I used these diligently, wiping every seat and surface that I was going to use, both in the airport and on the plane.

- My own hand sanitizer that I used after I touched anything. Expect to use about half a small bottle on a domestic trip.

- Expect things within the airport to be closed. Having a water bottle and some snacks with you can help eliminate the stress of the kiosk being closed.

I am not planning on flying again until November and I hope that we will see more safety measures in place on my next trip.

discovering the way that I can be the best version of myself

2020-07-10T20:22:00.000-06:00

Reflections are written and delayed posting not a reflection of current status, but a window into a past moment.

My tendency towards an unreserved highly passionate approach has a tendency to lead me to careers that consume me.

Over a decade ago one such career crashed and exploded around me in a way that at the time felt like the only option. It took me over two months to recover from that job and in the decade since I have been learning about how to care for myself; while allowing my high passion to continue.

Learning self-care was not instant and is far from over but I have made progress, and that commitment to continued learning is one of the habits leading to my highly passionate approach to discovering the way that I can be the best version of myself.

Things I need to reset:

- Unhindered sleep - no worries about not sleeping, sleeping too much or messing up my sleep schedule

- Quiet time

- Nothing

- Time with my spouse

- A clean house

- A bit of excitement, doing something like trying a new restaurant, going to a new part of town or a visit to the local movie theater

- Some basic exercise light yoga or a short walk

- Netflix and chill

- Going to the doctor and taking the time to focus on my health

With this reset, my balanced self begins to emerge. I know that version of me is arriving when I start to have, interest in reading, crafts, socializing, more intensive exercise, and somewhere in there a desire to create, express, learn, grow, expand and achieve.

Over the past few years, I haven't had enough of post-reset time to truly live as my balanced self. It has been exciting to be so fully immersed, I thrived under the high demands, my highly passionate approach was thriving. Things began to change. I found that I crave the more balanced version of myself and started to actively exploring how to pull away from the constant demands just enough to give me more recovery time. I committed to going to the doctor and taking the time to focus on my health and have made the appointments. I have been taking PTO, not for any specific reason but because it is important to give me the rest. I am check-in in on myself to ensure I am resetting. I am tracking how long its been since I engaged in things I love like reading and creating. I am learning more about who I am and what I need.

The first 30 days

2020-06-24T10:31:00.000-06:00

At 35, I realized after 10 years of successful non-profit career advancement I needed to make some changes.

I needed to live in a place that met my needs for activities, social, and family. I needed to take some time to focus on wellness. I needed to explore working, as important, but with other things also being important. This was an incredibly difficult and uncomfortable decision. It felt like jumping off a cliff. I was fortunate to have a spouse that fully emotionally stood by me during this process and, that I have been able to build savings to give me the time that I needed.

When I realized that the system that I have loved is not the system that I need for this next part of my journey happened in what has been the most complicated year of my life in the USA. You will see reference to some, but far from all, of the major defining events going on during this metaphorical jumping off a cliff.

The first 30 days after I left my job, I knew would move by quickly and I wanted to be sure to capture at least one item that I did each day.

Overarching goals during this time:
- Pay close attention to all doctor appointments/ instructions - I have put these off for too long and want to change that habit
- Exercise, stretch and possibly yoga
- Improve my Excel skills
- Read a few books
- Move to Washington
- Begin job hunting
- Connect with more of my friends/ family within social distance guidelines

Day 1
Cleaning

Day 2
Netflix

Day 3
Packed

Day 4
Doctors appointment

Day 5
Flew to Seattle
Explored Lacey Washington

Day 6
Job searching

Day 7
Met with the property manager for the new apartment
Hiked Green Mountain with my brother

Day 8
Lazy socially distance AM breakfast with friends in Seattle
Flew back to Texas

Day 9
Outdoor brunch with friends who flew in from Dallas

Day 10
Packed

Day 11
Protested the murder of George Floyd
Went to San Antonio to say goodbye (no hugs 😞) to family/ pick up some yard art

Day 12
Went through two boxes of childhood memorabilia and reduced them to one box

Day 13
COVID 19 test
Finished book, "Stay Alive my Son"

Day 14
Kahn Academy - Excel

Day 15
Hair Cut (Texas is open at the moment)
Started book "Bright Flows the River"

Day 16
Phone calls with family

Day 17
Day surgery (remember those doctors appointments that I have put off)

Day 18
Recovery day
Listening to The Andromeda Strain on Audible

Day 19
Second recovery day
Started the process of address changes for the move

Day 20
Addresses changes done
Finished Andromeda strain

Day 21
Gave all of our remaining food to some in-town family and said goodbye from 6 feet apart with masks on (so unnatural)
Begun listening to the Audible "Deep"

Day 22
Movers loaded up all of our townhouse and we cleaned
Did a test run through for a volunteer award that I am presenting this week via video call (Teams)

Day 23
A post-operation check-up with the doctor, things look good!
Got on an airplane and moved to Seattle

Day 24
Our car arrived
Moved into our new apartment (unaccompanied by our stuff that is still in the truck on the way to WA)
Purchased patio furniture from a locally owned patio store
Took some time to walk around our neighborhood

Day 25
Returned the rental car
Picked up our Target order, we now have Lysol spray, hand soap and; hand sanitizer back in our life :)

Day 26
Did an 11mile hike with a friend at Wallace Dallas state park

Day 27
Called family to reconnect
Hiked St. Edward's state park with Ian

Day 28
Had an attempted social distance coffee and park visit with a friend and her 3 years old, three-year-olds don't understand social distance :)

Day 29
On a whim decided to ride the ferries over to Port Angles. Had outdoor lunch with a friend and then hiked in the Olympic national park.

Day 30
Kept the Olympic national park tour going with a hike along the beach before visiting our cat who is staying with my Brother until I am more moved in.

Job exit communications in the time of Social Media

2020-06-12T12:04:00.000-06:00

I left a job that I loved at a company that I loved. Personal reasons prompted me to make a departure. After working through the emotional and logistics of leaving were being sorted out I found myself thinking about the best way to communicate this decision.

Here is the communication strategy that I used:

- Conversation with my supervisor

Followed by an official letter of resignation expressing my thanks for the opportunity to work with him the past several years.

- Announcement during a staff meeting notifying to my peers

I had a set of talking points, expressing my thanks, sadness to be leaving, and some general next steps for the transition, including the next few parts of how we were going to communicate.

- Teams meeting with my staff and leadership volunteers

I had a set of talking points, expressing my thanks, sadness to be leaving, and some general next steps for the transition, including the next few parts of how we were going to communicate.

- E-mail announcement to the company from my supervisor

Where he thanked me for my service and announced the interim who would be transiting with me.
Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours each day for the next 3 days responding to individual e-mails from your co-workers.

- 3 days before my final day, I put up an auto-response in my e-mail letting people know I was departing and who would be acting in my role after my departure.

- 2 days before my final day, I sent out an e-mail to my team thanking them for incredible work experience, sharing my persona information, and thanking the individual who was stepping in to act in my role during hiring.

To my coworkers, x-number years ago, when I joined the company name, I saw the volunteer mission in action though our front-line members and knew I had joined an extraordinary organization. X-number years ago, I came into the current position where everyone of you is living the values of our mission, doing the work of 10 people every day, and knew I was in an extraordinary department. During my time in the department we have delivered the company mission with compassion, client focus and care. We have set a standard of exceptionalism that is highlighted with sparkle and sunshine I owe a tremendous thank you to each of you for the privilege to be the current position in department these past x-number years. Working with each of you has been a highlight of my career. I will always be part of the company family and look forward to joining our volunteer workforce in the future. I am grateful interim successor name has agreed to pause his current job title duties to serve as the interim current position, continuing to support each of you as we move our mission forward. As I move into this next chapter in my life, I truly hope that we will stay in touch. My personal contact information is: cell, e-mail & LinkedIn I would like to leave you with one final quote from Harriet Tubman. “Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Sincerely, My full name
Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours each day for the next 3 days responding to individual contacts on your personal and work accounts from your co-workers.

- 1 week after I departed (once I saw my position was being posted for recruitment), I posted notification on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Month and Year marks the end of my chapter with the Company and the department. Delivering humanitarian aid on the frontlines of climate change in America has been an intensely rewarding experience, beyond any that I could have imagined. I am grateful for the Company family whom I have had the opportunity to work alongside over the past x-number years. As I depart from my role as the current role, I continue to have a quote from Harriet Tubman echo in my mind that captures the mission delivered and the mission delivery ahead. “Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours each day for the next 3 days responding to individual contacts from across your networks.

Adventure to suburban parks

2020-06-06T17:08:00.000-06:00

Urban living is wonderful for so many reasons. As we are three months into COVID19 I have found myself interested in a slice of suburban life.

Today I had the chance to spend a very pleasant hour and a half exploring the William Ives Trail and Meridian Neighborhood Park.

This slice of nature set between suburban neighborhoods has the suburban quiet, a steady set of walkers, well-behaved dogs, and youth on bicycles roaming along the unpaved paths.

Its a journey from Seattle (45min + one way) but the change in pace is a nice variety to days in the city.

In addition to the walking trails, the park has a nice playground area(not accessible), a large field, and a pavilion with picnic tables to round out your park visit.

today is today, today is a good day

2020-05-31T14:49:00.000-06:00

Reflections are written and delayed posting not a reflection of current status, but a window into a past moment.

Every day and every moment we have a choice to make.

When the volume of need exceeds the capacity of response we have a choice to make.

Today I am riding that edge of more than can be done but today is today and today is a good day.

As we ride that edge, I look for any line, any space, anything that I can do to keep us on that edge a bit longer.

The potential to go tumbling down is there, miserable failure is a possibility but before we crash, before we tumble before we fail we will try.

I will try to alleviate suffering.

I will try to create a system that is workable.

I will try to be at the forefront of humanitarian aid as we face new impacts of climate and social realities.

Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery

2020-05-22T16:50:00.000-06:00

In 2019 I had a chance to visit Anahuac NWR. With COVID-19 driving many of us to seek out activities that can be done safely with social distancing during the COVID pandemic.

The Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery part of Anahuac NWR is a bit odd, its tucked many miles from the main visitor infrastructure but it has some great short trails to get you into the lowlands where the gulf of Mexico and the State of Texas blend together.

The first parking area will put you at the live oak trailhead. The area is well paved, easy for my sedan to navigate. Its buggy, I suggest you bring your bug spray. The total length of the trail is less than 1/2 a mile and you will move across a diverse set of landscapes ending at a waterway where you can feel far away from everything.

The second parking area you will come across puts you at the Rookery trial head. This trail is better developed (Fewer bugs), longer perhaps 1- mile with an equally diverse set of landscapes, ending at a large field that is half marsh, half solid land. This trail is a birding dreamscape. We saw a couple out looking for a few feathered friends who were on their trips back north.

I think that I most enjoyed was the water crossing at the very start of the trail, so many fish, birds, and turtles to be seen. We easily lingered for 30 min spotting these animals as they enjoyed the warm sun and cooler water.

We coupled our trip to this part of the refuge with an afternoon on Bolivar flying kits and enjoying the gulf.

The total trip from downtown Houston and back was 9 hours. A great chance to get out of the city for the day.

Explore Houston - Lawndale/ Wayside

2020-05-16T20:47:00.002-06:00

As transplants to Houston, we are excited to take some time and explore parts of this diverse and dynamic city.

Last spring (2019) we spent a day in the Lawndale/ Wayside area, very near the U of H campus.

This day activity that can be done with social distancing during #COVID-19

First stop: Kickin Kombucha https://www.kickinkombuchapickup.com/ This local Kombucha brewer is yummy and the staff is exactly what you would hope, passionate about the product, helpful if you have questions and always have something unique to share while you are picking up your order.

From there a quick drive about 1.5 miles brings you to Smither Park https://www.orangeshow.org/ I am not sure I have words to describe the incredible visual pleasure of this park but I hope these photos give you a sample.

From Smither Park, we walked the very short street/ parking lot to Fonde Park that connects to the Brays Bayou Greenway Trail.

The Bluebonnets were out and the trail itself is in great shape. The Bayou still shows signs of construction, rehab, and rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. We walked about 1.5 miles before turning around and heading back to our car.

Total Time on this trip from departure downtown to return was under 3 hours.

Looking for more Houston activity ideas? Check out Its not Hou's post about COVID activity: https://itsnothouitsme.com/2020/03/24/10-ways-to-stay-active-during-covid-19-in-houston/

COVID-19

2020-04-18T17:41:00.000-06:00

7 weeks into social distancing. If I was going to title each week the 7 titles would be:

Excitement?

Overworked

Overwhelmed

Exhaustion

Sick or is it allergies

Grandfather passes

Cramps

Tomorrow

2020-04-06T14:58:00.000-06:00

Reflections are written and delayed posting not a reflection of current status, but a window into a past moment.

Cant do it all

To be a high achiever

or an overachiever

I find that I excel in the face of unimaginable challenges where many before me have faltered and where the stakes are unimaginably high and the oceans continue to rises.

But I do it at a cost

There are weeks that I don't talk to friend and family that I love

There are days where the sun it out and the weather is perfect and I am overwhelmed by the though of leaving my apartment.

It is not depression its just exhaustion.

A deep physical and emotional need to hibernate for a day and to re-charge.

Tomorrow I'll go outside.

Tomorrow I'll call my mom

Tomorrow I'll be ready to take on the evolving humanitarian needs in America.

2020 Donation Guide

2020-01-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

2020 charitable giving time has arrived. We truly enjoy annual giving research. We are able to learn about so many interesting organizations and incredible work being done. During the search I add the feeds for these great groups to my social account regardless if we decided to donate to them.

Last years monthly donation plan did not work out as well as we hoped. Life became chaotic and there were many months that we simple let making a donation fall off our priority list.

This year we are trying something different with three gifts, each under $500 to three non profits in January.

The focus is on combating climate change with non-profits that have action beyond research. Not being environmental scientists I turned to google to help us find our three. The first question we had was what are the biggest environmental issues facing our planet? Schooled by Science listed 10 issues, the three that we picked from that list are biodiversity, water pollution & pollution

In reading about biodiversity we learned that habitat protection and restoration are key to biodiversity. The great lakes region is one that we both love so we narrowed our search and found Michigan Nature Association, They were referenced by several other conversation groups as a key partner. The end of year report had a great blend of land acquisition for preservation, education and natural area stewardship - creating public access.

Pollution was the next issue we wanted to impact. Carbon capture having been in the news was where the google search started. Reading about the controversies and challenges with carbon capture I noticed a next article link about the risk faced in Tongass forest. This is a very concerning risk and we found several groups doing advocacy around the logging threat but we could not find any direct action organizations. Keeping in this part of the world we found Litter Free a non-profit who put on regular litter clean up days and provide ongoing education and advocacy about litter free actions and recycling.

Final issue that we want to make a positive impact on this year is water pollution. Google results showed that dynamic habitat protection and restoration are important elements to address this issue. With the help of Charity Navigator we narrowed to another area we both love and looked at many Washington based organizations. The decision was Northwest Watershed Institute. Northwest Watershed Institute leverages land acquisition, public/ private restoration and education to improve water quality in areas of pacific salmon natural habitat.

As in years past we will provide in kind gifts to the Red Cross & an annual donation to our local United Way. We have just started to volunteer with a local animal rescue (Houston Pets Alive) and are keeping an open mind that we may add them to our in-kind donations list in 2020.

The goal in sharing this each year is to give light onto some great organizations and to hopefully encourage you to make a positive impact as part of your plan for the year.

Fort Boggy State Park Cabins

2019-07-14T18:08:00.000-06:00

Cabin 1

Cabin 5

Cabin 4

Cabin 3

Cabin 2

Had the chance to introduce my brother and sister - in - law to the joys of staying at Texas State Parks. As they are not big outdoors people the cabins at Fort Boggy State Park were the perfect location.

The park has recently redone the cabins and the information that I could find online was limited. But after an awesome weekend of fishing, campfires and board games on the screened-in porches I would say that the best to least best for the cabins are 4, 3, 5, 1, 2.

The park itself is fairly limited, not many hiking trails, the lake is small and the bathroom options are clean but limited.

The cabins are incredible with AC, fridge, beds, screened and unscreened porches with ceiling fans and each has a picnic table and fire pit. Really ideal if you want to relax and enjoy slowing down & being in the forest.

Donation Guide 2019

2018-12-31T17:00:00.002-07:00

In what is now an annual tradition my partner and I are spending part of our new years making charitable donation goals for the upcoming year.

Check out last years here: https://surrealvolunteering.blogspot.com/2017/12/day-6-7daysofsocialmediavulnerabilitych.html

The first year we focused on water systems. The second on expression and speech. This year we are going a bit more local with a focus on things that have impacts in the Houston area.

Houston Magazine ran a great article about local non-profits that are making a positive impact in our community. Check it out here: https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2018/7/20/nonprofits-houston

With this to start us off, we have 4 that we will give to, 3 times each over the year.

The 2019 charities of our choice are:

Houston Public Media: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/ - This has some carry over as in 2018 when we donated to NPR.

Houston Justice: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/

Clinic Access Support Network: https://clinicaccess.org/index.html

ACLU Texas: https://www.aclutx.org/

As in years past, we will provide in-kind gifts to the Red Cross & an annual donation to our local United Way. Partway into 2018 we began carrying "homeless kits" in our car and have been passing out bags with small support items to those we pass begging at stoplights. These bags have items like water bottles, kleenex, and cough drops. We plan to continue this direct style of donation into 2019.

The value of supporting systems that make our world a better place is priceless, but from over 20 years in the nonprofit sector, I know that monetary donations are required for these systems to function and our world to be better.

My wish for 2019 is that the world is a better place, one donation, one hour, one person at a time.

Rosemary Mote

2018-11-04T13:20:00.002-07:00

Relentlessly kind

Always in my corner

Always had time

Made me feel valued and important

Gave me space to grow but was there to catch me if I miss judged

Yesterday I lost someone I loved but never told, someone who managed me, who mentored me, my colleague.

I am not sure what a path forward looks like without her in this world. I don't have steadfast honesty that I feel so confidant I can trust. I don't know if I can go, but I don't know if I can stay.

Our world is definitely a bit dimmer with her loss.

Her mother always said there was nothing that a fresh coat of lipstick wouldn't make better. Lipstick did give me a moment of minute peace. I cant. I just feel sick