Early one morning in mid-July of this year I walked into my living room and noticed a great deal of movement outside the windows that overlook my backyard. I walked to take a closer look and then blinked once or twice to be certain I was actually seeing what I thought I was seeing: Seven baby foxes (the size of kittens) were romping in the grass, watched over carefully by their mother. Whatever I was about to do didn’t get done; the sight of that family of foxes was an unusual gift. I now suspect that the mother gave birth beneath my deck and then nurtured the babies there until they matured. By August I often saw the growing foxes slip underneath the fence that encloses my property, one following the other. By the end of summer they were gone for good.

The foxes are a perfect metaphor for the work of Red Bird Foundation in 2011. It was a year of surprises and unexpected visions, a year of giving birth. As we mentioned in our newsletter, we created a pilot for working with small circles of men and women to help the heart experience a greater love – and from this love, to begin nurturing healing and peace in the world; we participated in beautiful hours of retreat with homeless women in transition and women in recovery; for the first time in our work with women living in the Middle East we met not only with Israeli women, but women living in Palestine as well; we sold embroidered items to help women in Bethlehem realize an economic presence in the marketplace; we raised scholarships so that children of low economic means could attend summer camps in Lithuania where they are being taught the ancient knowledge of the plants and herbs in their environment; we provided funds for the first building of a new retreat center in Nigeria – a place of stillness in a land of strife.

Everything we’ve been able to accomplish this year is because of you. Your investment in this work is the heart of Red Bird Foundation. You support us with your encouraging words and also with your monetary gifts. This is our chance to thank you for all you make possible. Together we are a great force of love, and your willingness to participate helps us move forward. We send our deepest thanks and look forward to partnering with you further in 2012. Because of your commitment we are able to touch many lives. We are a small organization, and yet every time we make a difference in one life, we alter the space in which we all live.

Paula D’Arcy
President, Red Bird Foundation

I have spent much of 2010 considering my own and Red Bird Foundation’s responsibility to the world at this time in history.  How will we best continue to contribute – in large and small ways – to the world’s great needs? Which choices will help us and others awaken to greater freedom and truth?

WOMENSPEAK 2010 in Mobile, AL set many things in motion.  Just as in WOMENSPEAK 2007, in San Antonio, this international gathering of women allowed the hundreds who attended to meet women living in different cultures, as well as those with a great diversity of life experiences. By the time the conference closed we had corporately given substantial monetary support to women struggling in rural Mississippi, Uganda, Israel, and Tanzania through the medium of our vendor tables. Well beyond these gifts was the impact on all our hearts.

Red Bird Foundation has continued to reach out during the year. We’ve just made possible a Center for spiritual healing in Nigeria, the education of forty-seven children in Haiti, scholarships to retreats, and the support of both Arab and Jewish women in Israel, including Palestinian women in the occupied territories. It never feels like enough to me, given the need.  Then I remember what it means to walk the road of life and do what’s within your reach, trusting the undeniable power that runs from the depths to the surface of everything that is. In the end, I know we are doing all that we can to reach hearts and restore hope. Astronaut Eugene Cernan writes that there is only light if the sunlight has something to shine on; when the sun shines through space, it’s black. Red Bird’s journey is a story of light striking our human lives. 

At WOMENSPEAK we collected the stories of many of the hundreds of women who attended. (The stories were left in a basket outside the room set aside for meditation and prayer). Many of the offerings were poems and some were narratives, accompanied by beautiful photographs. Women wrote about their journeys from poverty, from prison – they wrote about their lives in the United States and in other countries. Homeless women told their stories. Again and again we found courageous stories about healing and beginning again.  At the bottom of the basket was a piece of something that looked like metal. I picked it up and saw that it was a 12 Step chip which heralded someone’s sobriety for twenty-four hours. That chip had a remarkable impact on me.  It was a testament, once again, to the fact that love doesn’t break through theoretically – it breaks through in us. Thank you for all you’ve made possible. We are deeply grateful.

Donations of any size can always be mailed to: Red Bird Foundation, 6308 Abilene Trail, Austin, TX 78749, or you may donate online using Paypal at http://www.redbirdfoundation.com/ Press “Make a Donation”. All gifts are tax deductible.