Power of Collective

Thanksgiving is here. Across our country, family and friends will come together around food, fellowship and gratitude. We take an entire day off from work and school to be with each other and give thanks. We are given time to take care of ourselves and those in our community. We take time to reflect and uplift each other. Connection, laughter, love, respite and rejuvenation take place. In my dream world, we would do a little bit of this EACH AND EVERY DAY for ourselves, for our communities and for our country. In my dream world, we would realized we are all more the same than we are different. Lift our heads to see and connect with each other through understanding and love...not keep our heads down out of fear of ourselves for making a mistake, of the other because we have been conditioned to believe people not like ourselves are bad...of the unknown.

I BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE THROUGH SPREADING LOVE...OF OURSELVES, OUR FRIENDS, OUR FAMILIES AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF STRANGERS.

This holiday week, as you gather with loved ones, I have a few activities you can consider adding to your meal time conversation. One may lead to laughter and motivate you to do your own version. One may lead to knocking out your gift giving list. And one may lead to discovering ways you can lend your knowledge, time and talents to something new in the year ahead.

1. Watch this video. I manically filmed it the morning of Thanksgiving 2 years ago before heading out of town. I make myself cringe but I still believe in the words and dream of a flash mob or splicing together other people's video versions to create L.O.V.E. V2 (the lyrics are in the comments section of the video...no excuse not to be sending snippets of your family and friends doing LOVE!)

2. Peruse the "SHOP" section of the BLU website and get busy buying your holiday gifts for all your favorite people...and little humans that will be joining the world in 2019.

Onesie

English Lawn Sign

Tote Bag

Like father, like son Ts

Beanie

Adult & kids sizes

Longsleeve

Postcards

Tanks 2 ways

Muscle T

9 different languages

Baseball hats

3. Watch this video post I shared on Facebook last week (it will take 11 minutes out of your week) and a little about +togetherSEATTLE, a new organization committed to harnessing the collective power of community, raising awareness and funds for human rights issues. BLU is proud to be a founding member. We had our inaugural event on 11.14 bringing 140+ Seattle dining businesses together to rasie $57,230 for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project for #FamiliesBelongTogether. It is not the #s that make me proud but of the knowledge that 10 individuals, without know how or a road map, came together with a shared desire to bring community together to be a part of the change we want to see in the world. I also talk about the power of community...we are so much stronger together. Finding ways to harness the collective does not require new idea generation, instead it requires the courage of individuals to come together around a shared interest and invite others to join in. This week, Eric Liu's, "The Power of Neighbors" video touches on ways to start.

If you really want to go over the top this holiday week and are looking to binge some streaming video, you can work backwards through this blog. If you want more background, watch the previous blog video.

I truly believe all things are possible if we can let down our guards, lead with love, honesty and humility with an understanding that each human on this earth is much more the same than we are different and when we allow ourselves to sit together, share with each other and find a common goal, greatness can happen.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

-Tara