To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand.
When 31-year-old Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just one month after she was married, she began a journey that would burden her with terrible pain, depression and hopelessness. Her physical and mental health were worn to the last thread as she prepared to be admitted to the hospital for a medical detoxification to free her from prescription drugs that she had been given to numb the pain. She could barely get out of bed in the morning and her marriage, health and career were in a tailspin. She was doing all she could think of to care for herself and it wasn’t working. That’s when a friend gave her the prescription that would change her life forever and force her focus from herself and her disease to selflessly and generously giving to others – by making 29 gifts in 29 days.
Cami’s new book and website, both titled 29 Gifts, have started an international movement to revive the spirit of giving and track the very positive changes in the lives of the donors. Cami has experienced in a very dramatic way the Law of Giving, which infallibly proves that “in order to give we must receive and in order to receive we must give.”
Numerous studies published by Harvard, Princeton, Yale and others conclude that generous people are rewarded with better health, increased sense of happiness and personal and professional achievement. A recently published book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, written by Stephen Post, PhD, chronicles these studies and personal stories of the power of living with the understanding that selfless acts of generosity always attract more in return than the donor ever gives.
But none of us give to receive, and that is where the true power of generosity is experienced. Most of us see philanthropy — whether through our church, our schools, or local service organizations such as the CPH Foundation — as a one-way street and expect and request nothing in return. However, it is by putting the needs of others before our own that we are granted benefits that we would never have expected and that put us in the position to do even more for those people and causes we care about. The more caring and sincere the gesture, whether monetary or simply a random act of kindness, the more healing and empowering it becomes for the giver. Nothing feels better than when we find our own interest, the cause that is closest to our hearts, and sacrifice something of ourselves to support it.
Look around the halls of CPH, Heritage Place and Serenity House. Watch closely the people you work with at our clinics and off-site facilities. You will see these sacrifices made all the time. We are drawn to help each other and the more we seek to do so, the more it expands through our organization and the people we serve.
Thank you for supporting each other, our patients, our Heritage Place residents, and our Serenity House clients. We have much to be thankful for living in this community and coming to work each day with a mission to care for our friends, families and neighbors. In return, we ask for nothing but receive more than we could ever imagine.
Please continue this spirit of generosity by making a gift each pay period by payroll deduction. By doing so you will not only grow resources to further the mission of the Foundation to change the lives of those who need a helping hand, but you will make a powerful and lasting contribution to grow the culture of giving and sharing that the Kenai Peninsula was founded upon.
