Outreach Experiment

“Be a lamp unto yourself, make of yourself a light.”
— Buddha

Last week, about the day after I told you I felt pathetic and loser-ish, I began a “Get Anne out of the Dump Program”. I decided that I would contact one new old friend each day that I missed, that I had a previous authentic connection with, and that I would like to follow up on.

It wasn’t that hard. I cleaned out my email at work, realized there were 2 in there that I kept meaning to respond to, and then cleaned out my messy yahoo email and found several more people. Then I actually prayed about it and asked God to let me know whom I needed to contact (of course the first one that came up after the prayer was the amends I needed to make… not as much fun, but necessary).

On Day 3, I got an email back with so much genuine emotional thickness, it has stuck with me for a week. On Day 4, I realized I already had 3 people who had sent me outreach emails that I had not even recognized. On Day 5, I got to talk and laugh with an old teaching friend of mine whom I hadn’t spoken to in years. We laughed and laughed about stuff. Day 6, the miracles were downright circling me- I began getting outreach from friends I hadn’t heard from in a long time. Other people are reaching out to me! And today, Day 8, I got an invitation to a neighborhood women’s gathering, to make more friends.

So it is cascading now, that intention I set a week ago to get my butt out of the Dump. I challenge you to try this if you are feeling a lack of love, support, and encouragement in your life. Offer it to one new person a day, in a genuine, enthusiastic, look-them-in-the-eyeballs kind of way, for 8 or 10 days. Offer it to women, old men, coworkers, old coworkers, whoever crosses your heart. Just offer it out there, and see what you feel like giving. Tell me what comes back to you.