South West eCommerce

Gidday, the way business is going, there’s no stopping.  Even when I’m away from the computer, there is thinking going on, but school holidays means I HAVE TO down tools every so often to hang out with my young people, and that’s a great blessing.  We’re doing what amounts to a really new thing for us, and there are literally hours of video lessons to watch, and I’m the kind who takes more than one watch through to really make sense of a lot of it, so the process churns on.

Every so often though, it’s time to pause and reflect.  If I’m bright I think I may build it in so that I formally take that moment.  I got in this morning and spoke for a while to my partner about what I was thinking and structuring last night at midnight.  It’s probably the answer to a conundrum we’ve been facing for a while, and there are still some practicalities to sort out, but it got our joint attention.

Then I opened the mail.  One piece was from some people I sent a scrawny little amount of money to last year.  It genuinely made me leave my hurried existence behind for a moment.  Not everything my mind drifted onto was positive, but the effect of considering others and forgetting my own stuff for a couple of minutes was moving and should be repeated.

Here’s the text of the letter.

Dear Dave,

It takes a lot of courage to make a gift for the benefit of some one else during these uncertain times.  And it’s extremely easy to talk ourselves out of giving so that others can live.  We genuinely wonder if our amount – whatever it is – can actually make a difference.  I’m writing to tell you that it does!

This year alone it has made the difference in the lives of 21 children who are alive today because of gifts like yours.  Many of them – like Kadeeja, Ahmad, and Lawaran were on the brink of death when we met them.  Today they are vibrant, lively children going to school without help, playing football, and crawling all over the place like babies do!

Please don’t ever doubt that you can bring the future you envision into reality today.  There are many war experts and Iraq experts weighing in on the future today.  But we don’t have many leaders.  By your gift you’ve moved from the realm of arm-chair commentator to activist.  Without worrying about being an expert, you’ve become a type of leader in the struggle for peace and justice.

Your money, your time, your voice – these things make all the difference in the world.  We are so grateful to have you on board!

Peace from Iraq,

Jeremy Courtney

Preemptive Love Coalition

The moment was quite moving, and to be honest the amount I sent was tiny, but piece by piece is the only way to turn the world to a better place, so this has encouraged me to structure another gift into my pay soon.

You might have another desperate need closer to your heart than this one, but I’d encourage you now, down tools and think about pushing some goodness into the world, and then do it.