How We Will Share Love in 2022

I am grateful to know many people who only want to make the world a better place. I could list all day generous family members and friends who do kind deeds for others - wanting no reward or even acknowledgement.

When I created the course "Healing through Creativity," the fourth and final part is how to share love with others in ways that are harmonious and sustaining to you. That's one of many reasons why self-love is so important. It is impossible to sustainably give what you don't have.

You are worth caring for just because, not because you need to do things for others. But just because you are worthy of it. And yet, I know that many of my readers here are constantly thinking of how they can help a neighbor, ease the pain of a friend, transport a dog to a better home...

I'd love to hear from you... what are the things you are wanting to do for others in the coming year. So please write and let me know. I also thought I would share with you something new for 2022. I spent time in December reflecting on how I could focus more to create positive change in the world.

I decided to focus on five things. These are heartfelt causes I deeply care about. It is my hope that by sharing more about these causes in 2022, you might join me in some of them or be inspired to find where you want to transform the planet!

Some of these projects will involve physical labor, some will be using the power of social media, others will be educational and of course there's always money - I will contribute $$$ to some of these causes as well.

Let me know if any of my heartfelt causes connect with you! As we look ahead into the new year, I present to you my 2022 focus of Sharing Love:

Very close to home

Community Garden for Bees, Butterflies and Birds

Amy Williams Wellness and Wanda Petunia are grateful to be part of a co-working community in Charlotte, NC called Advent Coworking. It was once our physical office and is now our virtual office and real community. Advent is a most delightful place and space - it was once a cookie factory! Currently, Advent is a space where all different kinds of people work and meet to conduct business and help the world! I love how our Advent community cares about people and the environment. They even have a bicycle library where you can check out a bike :) While recently picking up my mail, a muddy space near the front entrance caught my attention! It inspired me to ask Sam, a delightful Advent staff member, if we could turn the space into a garden for bees, butterflies, and birds! Sam checked into this >> and said "YES!" So this is a personal goal for 2022! We are currently securing funds, supplies, etc to build raised beds and plant bee-bird-butterfly friendly plants and help these little friends find a local sanctuary to land!

Proud and Pretty Girls

My first Charlotte, NC office was in a delightful space called Area 15. It was there where I met Alma who works with youth at risk in a mentoring program. She invited me, and Wanda Petunia, to join her efforts and help the girls learn about self-care and self-love via Wanda. We were delighted! Proud and Pretty Girls is the girls mentoring program where mentors, moms, grandma's, and girls to get together to talk about important topics like loving yourself, confidence, boundaries, choices, and more. Thanks to generous donors, I have been blessed to give some girls Wanda plushies. And, I've shared workshops on self-care, self-love, coping skills and more! I've been less involved during Covid, but helping these girls will be a renewed focus of our caring in 2022!

Changing Hearts Farm

Pre-Covid I was blessed to make a trip to visit this animal rescue farm in rural North Carolina. They are a non-profit animal sanctuary and animal protection organization that offers education along with rescue space. They help both farm animals and animals from shelters. Changing Hearts was founded with the desire "to provide an environment for all to explore our commonalities and relate to each other in a different way." They have pigs (of course) and more animals that have been in need and rescued. Sharing more about their work and supporting them will be an important focus in this new year!

Further away and still close to home and heart

Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association

I wanted to be a veterinarian my whole childhood and even into college - until I realized my chemistry wisdom (or lack of it) was not going to get me a DVM! But caring for animals has been in my heart FOREVER! Having lived the majority of my adult life in Charleston, WV, I hold the Kanawha-Charleston animal shelter close to my heart. It is no longer a kill shelter and works hard to care for and advocate for animals. Therefore, it is my goal to advocate for the staff there by offering them emotional support through an educational program in 2022! Shelter work involves compassion fatigue, burnout, trauma and grief > and I want to help ease that. My dear friend Jamie is helping coordinate this, and I am very grateful for her :)

In the bigger world, we come back to my childhood

Aldi Pig Crates

Since I was a young girl, witnessing and speaking up for mistreatment of pigs, I have cared about their abuse and mistreatment. I cannot take on and change the cruelty of all of factory farming, but I can pick one area to focus on. For 2022, this will be to change how the Aldi grocery chain supports serious mistreatment of pigs in their supply chain. Some other companies have ended the cruel practice - one of the cruelest in agriculture - of gestation crates. Gestation crates lock up mother pigs in tiny crates for virtually their entire life! This will definitely be part of our efforts in 2022 - to end this practice! (Photo below is of pigs being transported to slaughter.)

Over the next year, I will share links, requests, updates and inspiration on each of these causes! I hope you will take time to consider helping Wanda Petunia, Beefy Parisian Pig and me create positive change for all beings!

Remember the more you care for yourself, the more you have to give! And, please write back on what causes you will be caring about and working on. We will inspire and support each other!!

Thank you for reading :)

Much love and gratitude,