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EDIT: Hi! We just found out there are actually a few signed prints available – which is SUPER great for the Unity Shoppe!
We asked Brian if he’d help out a little more on this first one, just to make it extra special, and he said, ‘How about an original drawing?‘ and he didn’t even have the question mark out of his mouth when we said ‘Yes!’ There’s no end to the stuff that’ll happen when you’re in the mood to be part of something bigger …
In just two days, the auction will end on a ‘Connection’ print signed by both Kenny Loggins and Brian Andreas. The auction proceeds will benefit the Unity Shoppe of Santa Barbara. You can find it right 
here and bid with gusto. Or cheer on the other bidders. 
(If you’re copying and pasting: http://is.gd/4URBX)
There couldn’t be a better story for this organization, a local pearl – you know, one of those gems that isn’t shiny and show-offy, but the reward of a lot of grit – and luminous for it.
Allow me to remind you how that story goes:
there came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot he was part of something much bigger -
When it comes to helping each other, people do what they can do. And there are countless reasons why they do it, why anyone steps up at any time to give support or lend a hand. 
Nothing is better, though, than the hand reaching out because it knows the hand it’s reaching for wants the same warm feeling of safety, the same strong grip of hope.
Or the voice that advocates or negotiates for the one who is just trying to findthe the right way to talk of a future to its children.
Or mind that opens wide and creates solutions and imagines EVERYone flourishing.
This is exactly how the Unity Shoppe operates. There are no halos on parade. There’s just a promise that’s made and met every day: dignity for the clients. Real dignity.
I don’t know if it’s in their mission statement or a formal matter of policy, but I’m going to trust my experience and guess it’s borne out of a vision of our connection. 
It seems as if all involved know this to be true and so, whatever they say, however they assist, whenever they’re organizing or distributing – there is nothing but an unfailing attitude of unity.
It’s 
wild and it’s wonderful and fills all of us in this community with big gratitude. What other way could you feel when you’re invited to be part of something much bigger?
** I’ve included a few pictures of the grocery store and children’s clothing boutique for anyone who wants to be stubborn and refuse to believe it. Ha. Each of them gets a little bigger when clicked.
http://www.unityshoppe.org/
http://www.logginsfans4unity.com/
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The art is in & the bidding is under way! Our “Worlds of Good” silent auction to benefit local food pantries has garnered some fascinating contributions, as you can see above. (Sorry, but a couple of those pictures were taken through the front window of the studio. I didn’t want to move, or break, anything.) In the upper left you see Karen Haas Misseldine’s ceramic “The World on a Platter” with Kathy Erickson’s ceramic hemisphere hanging in the background. The upper right photo features the one & only StoryPeople “Imagining World” Globe. Jeremiah Johnson’s “World in Bloom” globe sits in front of David Kamm’s “Balanced Diet” sculpture in the lower left & the lower right photo shows “Peas on Earth (in 2D & 3D)” by Maxxximum Madcap.
If you want to see all the pieces (there are many others which are not pictured here), please stop on in to the StoryPeople Studio at 113 E. Water Street in downtown Decorah, Iowa. We have bidding sheets sitting on tables right inside our front entry, but please feel free to chat with The Crew or even take a tour of the Studio if you like. Also, if you don’t live near Decorah but still want to place a bid on any of these Worldly Creations, (the auction ends August 7th) just give us a call at 1-866-564-4552 & ask for Karen or Juli. They know what’s going on. Well, they say they do anyway…
Why do these two look so happy? And why are they standing next to two wooden figures? Figures with words printed on them?
Leave it to Jesse. He got the idea he wanted to propose (sorry, we mean Propose, we’re talking the Real Thing darnit!) to Megan right out in front of the StoryPeople Studios. He came in all calm and polite one day (he was neither married nor engaged yet) and talked to a few of the Crew here and a plan was hatched…
Now, I could go on and tell you the whole story, but there’s no need. We’ve just sent out the third edition of our idea of a monthly newsletter. Except sometimes it’s not monthly and it’s definitely not a Newsletter. It’s formally called an “eNote” and we would like to invite you to read the whole story of Jesse and Megan and The Proposal there, in case you didn’t receive the email. You can also sign up to get our “eNotes” if you’re interested.
It’s “Wedding Season” to be sure, which we’ve explained on the homepage of our website. (A very convincing explanation involving knives and then spilling over into towel sets and creativity… really, you just have to check it out for yourself.)
We wish all the best for Megan and Jesse, and thank them for letting us partake in their special moment.
There are a lot of great people out there taking on some difficult challenges. Sometimes they write to tell us how a particular story of Brian’s has touched them. We’re hoping to start sharing some of their stories here on our PeopleStories blog. (It was one of our original intentions, it just took us a while to get around to it.) So, thanks to Jennifer (and the NYN Foundation) who recently sent us this email… we look forward to hearing from more of you.
Dear StoryPeople,
I am writing on behalf of my friend, Tammy Nischan, who runs a nonprofit foundation created in honor of her son Nick who battled brain cancer for almost 7 years before he died in November at the age of 13. The Nicholas Yancy Nischan Foundation can be found on the web and is an umbrella foundation with several ministries. It focuses on helping families whose children have been diagnosed with life-threatening diseases. “Legacy” spoke to me and I shared it with Tammy who was awed by these powerful words. They speak of our mission with the Foundation and we wanted you to know how special we think it is. The NYN Foundation has been very successful and has helped at least 15 families already (with gas cards, food and cash for food, travel expenses for treatments, gifts for the children, special baskets of items, and sometimes just cash for household expenses when parents are not able to work because of appointments, treatments or hospitalization, etc.)…and we are just getting started. Please know that your special print will always hang in our homes in memory of Nick and as a symbol of our vision for the NYN ministry. I think several of our board members will want to order prints when we show them at our next meeting in August. Just wanted you to know how special we think it is. I have 3 of your prints already hanging in my home and hope to add Legacy very soon. Thank you for creating a print that seems to be made especially for us!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Malone malone11@windstream.net
Secretary
Nicholas Yancy Nischan Foundation
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www.nicholasyancynischanfoundation.blogspot.com www.tammynischan.blogspot.com www.nick7-11.zoomshare.com |
“I promise you not a moment will be lost as long as I have heart & voice to speak & we will walk together again with a thousand others & a thousand more & on & on until there is no one among us who does not know the truth: there is no future without Love.” (Legacy by Brian Andreas)
When I was 20, I spent a summer working at Jordan Lake State Park near Raleigh, North Carolina. It was a beautiful summer and as I worked to help maintain the park, I increasingly spent my days speculating about where I wanted my life to go next. As I prepared to leave at the end of August to return to college in Minnesota, I thought I had it figured out. I told my sister (who I’d been living with) that I was going to meet a nice guy with a cabin in the country, someone I could live a simple life with.
Three days later, I met the man who is now my husband. He owned an acreage and had built a small cabin on it. The cabin was (and still is) off the grid and powered by solar panels. He had been creating the same things in his life that I had been dreaming up in mine. We lived together in that cabin for four years before moving into town. I think we would still be there if I had only been able to keep my head in a positive place, but I started to obsess about how small it was and how hard it was to keep clean. We had a baby and I complained constantly about having no running water or washing machine. I eventually spent all my time dreaming about a house in town and all the modern conveniences it would include.
So here I am now, sitting in our house in town eight years later. We have hot running water, a dishwasher, unlimited electricity, six times as much living space… Does that mean I’m happy? Not necessarily. At times I am. As long as I refrain from focusing on what is lacking or what I wish was different, I feel content.
But it’s funny, now I often wish life was more simple and I miss the quiet time in the country. I tell myself I could have been happy in the cabin, too, if I’d only been able to adjust my state of mind. I’d actually found the Dream Life I’d predicted in our simple cabin and then a few years later I’d created an unhappy life there.
When things take an unexpected turn in the wrong direction it’s easy to come up with a million excuses and start pointing a finger of blame. Mostly, now I appreciate how reflecting on these experiences inspires me to work even harder at being present, to witness my thoughts so that when they turn negative, I can redirect my mind back to what is good and true. Back to the things I really do want to create.
Robin
Decorah, IA
“Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality except for some of the parts where she can’t help but wonder what the hell she was thinking” (Almost New Age by Brian Andreas)
