By Jenyng Wu
Friday, February 12, 2021 is the Lunar New Year. In my home growing up it was the Chinese New Year. We would spend the day saying things like ‘May the New Year be full of happiness,’ and ‘Congratulations and good fortune to you.’ Blessings are shared, gifts of food symbolic of health and prosperity are bestowed, and firecrackers pop as dragons dance to celebrate the ‘new.’
Chinese New Year is also commonly known in East Asian cultures as the Spring Festival, marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring in the lunisolar calendar. It’s only appropriate then that the Holistic Centers Network, an organization representing a network of international centers, will be piloting an initiative, “Act Local, Think Global” to celebrate the tradition of community, wellness, and hope.
This initiative is a grant program aimed to help centers ‘jump start’ building community with their local organizations serving the vulnerable or marginalized. The initial funding for this program is modest ($1,500) for eight HCN member centers to be selected through a simple application and lottery process. What can one do with $1,500? Host an organization at your center for a partial day retreat, pay staff to strategically connect with local social change makers…be imaginative, be generative, be brave. In the next couple weeks HCN will host a webinar to share more about this initiative (application, process, timeline, etc.) so stay tuned.
In the spirit of regenerative abundance, another organization has stepped up to add to the pot so four more centers can participate (that brings our current total to 12)! The goal of this initiative is to start a ‘snowball effect’ or ‘chain reaction’ of movement for our centers and relevance for the role we can play in social transformation, healing, and renewal.
During the winter months, the HCN Board revisited our vision and mission as an organization. I share the refinements of our collective process:
Vision
We envision a global network of holistic centers working together for the evolution of consciousness, justice, and care for the natural world.
Mission
To deepen connection, communication and collaboration among holistic centers worldwide, by sharing innovative learning and amplifying our collective impact.
This pilot initiative is our intention to manifest that which we aspire to be. We invite our member centers to be curious and to know how deeply HCN appreciates your contribution as part of this community we call Holistic Centers. For new centers we invite you to become a member and widen our community and amplify our global impact for social wellbeing.
In addition, I invite folks to consider this an opportunity to donate, not as a year-end appeal for tax purposes, but as a year-beginning, abundance-modeling, manifesting intention setting declaration to ‘build this house together.’
Tonight, on the Eve of the Lunar New Year (also called the ‘Little Year’), I will gather my family to the table, we will eat, laugh, and tell stories. Maybe this year I will teach my boys how to play mahjong, a game my grandmother taught me as a girl. And I will tuck red envelopes with a crisp one-dollar bill underneath my children’s pillow. And in the morning of the New Year, I will tell them that their red envelope is more than just the value of the paper money inside, but that it is a blessing of hope, wellness and love for the whole year to come!
With joy, intention and blessing,
Jenyng
HCN Board President
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