Give Till it Helps!
A bunch of us on the Illuminate Film Festival team were working today, stuffing gift bags for attendees to the upcoming festival. A lot of sponsors have donated gifts and money and they also insert rack cards and flyers in the bags to promote their businesses. When we gather the items together, a lot of thought goes into the order that they go inside the gift bags. We don’t just stuff them in there. We make sure that the booklets and articles and cards are right side up. We make sure that sponsors who have gone beyond the norm in their giving, are placed in a prominent place to be seen. I was collating many of the pieces of media, and when I got them together I said a blessing over the items. I wanted whomever received them to be blessed and to feel the love that these items contain in their messages.
Many on our team of volunteers have worked hundreds of hours over the last eight months to make this incredible festival occur. We have given up lots of our free time. We have altered our lives and rescheduled many things in order to fulfill this dream. Our dream is for the world to be a place of love, joy, caring and prosperity for every soul. We have been lovingly lead by our Founding director, Danette Wolpert and our Managing Director Morgan Richmond, who work ceaselessly to fulfill our mission. We believe that conscious cinema is a powerful force for good and it will create an awakening on planet Earth. So when we are doing menial tasks, we do them with joy and we do them in excellence, because it matters. When folks open their gift bags they will see all of the things inside. However, they will feel the energy and love of this remarkable team, that gives so much.
So there will be times during the event that those of us on the staff will be viewing the movies and healings with the audience. And we will smile and maybe tears will come to our eyes and we will have a lump in our throats. Yes, like you, we will all be watching talented and gifted filmmakers and artists on stage. And we will know how many hours it took to create the magic of this moment in time. I am so grateful that Lou Ann and I are doing this again for the third year and that the festival is in it’s fifth year. It has made such a difference in our personal lives to be part of something so transcendent. I invite all of you who read this blog to be part of the next festival or something like it. The world needs it now! From my thankful, grateful heart to yours, Thomas