Why I Chose Warm Heart

A lot of people have been asking me who it is I'll be working with in Thailand.  If you want a more comprehensive understanding of the non-profit I'm working please visit: www.warmheartworldwide.org

Overall I often compare people to my Bryn Athyn community:
1) Do they take care of their own?
2) Do they show up for people in need?
3) Do act as a family and love each other on that level?
4) Is their drive to better other people's lives?

If the answer to those questions are "yes" than more often than not I want to be a part of it.  Reality is that Warm Heart is all those things are more.  They take care of their own... and "their own" means everything from their volunteers to the children and their children homes to the people in their community.  They show up for people in need and often go beyond the basic needs to look at the real problem.  For example, addressing the sex trade is always well and good but if you can't fix the underlying poverty the sex trade will not change.  Everything from their children's home to their staff is part of the greater Warm Heart family... kid's needs are addressed (everything from basic clothing to help with homework) and in my experience, my needs were met as well.  Being able to tell my story and use my background in my job there this coming year shows me that they understand me on a basic human level: If I do what I love I will be of my greatest use.

Lastly, their drive is to better the lives of the people in and around Warm Heart.  The greater community is helped through their co-ops, the children are helped through education and love, their volunteers are helped by expanding their knowledge base and working on projects that drive them, the people who work for Warm Heart have a job and a people who care for them and ensure that their lives get better-- to the best of Warm Heart's ability.

I chose to spend my time in Warm Heart based on these features.  All the help in the world won't help a man grow if that help is not diffused in love.  And Warm Heart has the heart that is needed most in a place where love is often left out because of crushing poverty.  I have an opportunity to be apart of it.  How amazing.

If you take a look at the Warm Heart site and feel moved to make a donation please make sure you let them know where you found out about them and why you're making the donation. 

Much love,
Hannah 

A Calming Manifesto

The gift of freedom also comes with the gift to feel.  It is these emotions that I must often survive.  My greatest source of joy is often my greatest source of pain.  Don't get me wrong, I love that I can feel these things but that doesn't make them any easier.  The realization has hit me that very soon I shall be leaving for Thailand and I am excited, overjoyed and full of hope.  But I am also fearful-- I am leaving behind some of the most amazing wonderful supportive people I have ever met.  You people have loved me so thoroughly that leaving hurts.  I have moved so so many times.  I've changed houses, counties, and states and usually I left a path of destruction behind-- there was no one left that loved me.  

This time things are very different.  I am leaving behind a network and family of people from Georgia to Pennsylvania both in recovery and from school and church.  My network is vast and beautiful and I am blessed beyond measure.  I know that if I chose to stay I would be suffocating the growth that you have begun.  My journey is just beginning... but that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable.  Change, for me, is so often uncomfortable.  But it is good.  This uncomfortability that allows me to grow even more... so I'll marinate in the awkwardness of it and absorb the richness of it all.  As scared as I might be for this huge life change, I am at peace in the knowledge that I am not alone.  I never have been.

My God is so big and so wonderful. My faith in that God is that I have fully found my purpose.  Beyond my purpose I have found that I am capable of loving people on a grand scale-- this is only possible because of how much love I've received from my vast network and family.  The woman I once was over four years ago is no longer the woman I am today.  Who I am today is a woman that fully plans on changing the world one hug, one conversation and one prayer at a time.  I believe I am capable of this only because I have learned to dream the dreams that my higher power has created for me.  My greatest dreams got me high but my God's greatest dreams for me has be flying off to thailand in 23 days.  I am humbled by that vision.  

I often wonder... why me? This plan wasn't my own.  I was called-- of this, there is no doubt.  So why?  I don't know the answer to that question but I do know that because of this call I am full of purpose and the knowledge that my God has been next to me from the very beginning.  Even in the depths of despair I was cared for and loved whether I accepted that fact or not.  Despite the call I am still human.  So very very human.  It is this humanity that causes me to fear and I accept that.  I fear it-- but I walk through it.  Trudge through it at times but still.... i move forward without hesitation.  I have one life to live and after nearly screwing it up once I'm taking this chance and riding it until there's nothing left to ride.  

I will live well, I will walk through the fear, and I will remain calm in the knowledge that my God has great plans for this tattooed ex junkie that are beyond what I ever thought possible.  This is my freedom.  This is my hope.