For Those Left Behind...

Now what?

May 21, 2011 was, according to Harold Camping, supposed to be the day the righteous were to be raptured into heaven.

His radio station, Family Christian Radio, had their website devoted to the end coming on May 21st. Now, the site is just back to business as usual.

Camping himself, who spent hundreds of thousands on dollars on over 2000 billboards and bus adverts across the nation, has not said much other than that, "It has been a very tough weekend." and that he is "flabbergasted" that the Rapture did not take place.

I'm not here to judge Camping or his followers. That does not return dignity to anyone. What I am here to do is ask; "What happens now to those who believed?"

I have been following this whole thing for many months now since I read an article about a 32 year old woman who quit her job to follow Camping and to spread the word of the impending Rapture. Since then, I have read other stories of families who have stopped saving for their children's colleges and quit their jobs. Who have flat out told their children that they will be denied heaven because they don't believe as their parents do. And even a story about a  CA woman who was so afraid of the upcoming tribulation that she attempted to kill her two children and herself.

Now can you chalk all these people up to just being fanatics or disturbed. However, it is not as easy as that.
It is more about the fact that Camping's campaign was driven out of fear and not our of love. A campaign that in many ways told people that their faith was not enough.

As I have said before, people do not need to be told that they are broken or in pain. They already know that. what they do need to be told is that they are worthwhile and loved.

Part of the mission of The Returning Dignity Project, is to interact with those who feel ignored and left behind.

Camping's campaign has not only rocked his faith, but the faiths of countless people. People who said goodbye to their jobs, and families and daily lives. People who are now left to figure out if they are going to throw out the baby Jesus with the bath water.

Christians are told to have faith like little children. To have simple faith and be pure of heart. Things like the Judgement Day campaign took that simple faith and twisted it and drove that faith with fear. Now there are people left with broken faith.

I hope in Camping's mind and heart he believed he was doing a good thing. He wanted people to turn away from bad and look towards the good of God. However, it turned into a fear campaign that caused shame to reign down on people and caused a blow to the Christian community as a whole. Even though many Christians are not in the same group as Camping, many non-Christians will lump everyone together.

So what can we do?

Whatever your faith is, we can do our best not to judge.  Instead of looking at someone as crazy for having faith in the May 21st prediction, we can lift them up and have hope for healing in them. We can hope for any brokenness that came from this to be small and for them to find new direction in their faith and that it be one of love and not of fear. However you pray, pray for these folks. Pray that they will find love, real divine love. The kind of love that comes with peace and joy and reassurance.

I'm not here to tell you how to believe, but I am here and the RDP is here to lift up people and to changes peoples lives for the better with simple interactions. Ask yourself how you might feel if something you believed was true was exposed to be a lie. Something like your marriage falling apart after years of thinking you were in a loving, committed relationship. Where would that leave you? Where has this left them?

You may not know any of these folks personally, but with our own words and actions we can help keep more shame, different shame and fear from being further heaped on the heads of these people. When others talk about this and mock these believers, don't join in and encourage them to lift these people up as well.

My heart is heavy with this, and that's why I chose to write about it today. But in my faith, I know that God can do more healing and rebuilding than we as people can ever destroy.

Have a great Monday. May it be full of grace and love for those you know and those you don't.

A Soldier Thank You Challenge

Today, in light of the news of Osama's death, I am going to talk a bit about the military today.

My father and my brother both served in the military. My father joined the Air Force in order to get American citizenship. My brother joined the Army out of high school and served in the first gulf war. He was a tank gunner and top gun in his class.

My mother, a teen in the 60's, watched a lot of her friends go off to Vietnam. And of course, not all of them came home.

Whether you agree with the current wars we are involved with or not, you can still support our troops. I personally am thankful to the military for helping ensure our freedom. People criticize the military on a constant basis, but let's remember if it wasn't for our armed forces, we may not live in a country where we can openly speak our minds. And although I may complain about my job at times, at the end of the day I don't have to worry if I'm going to make it home or not.

So here is your challenge this week. When you see a soldier or a veteran, thank him or her for serving. If you know someone who has served or is currently serving, thank them. I know it can mean so much.

So there it is. Thank a soldier. Thank a veteran. It's so simple.

Have a great Monday and follow us here on the blog or on Twitter @retrningdignity

A Trip to The Tustin Farmers Market

Last Wednesday I took a morning bike ride to the Tustin Farmers Market to get some eggs and veggies for the week. As I was getting some veggies from a very talkative and excited vendor named John, he asked if he could give me something. I told him he could. John went to the front seat of his truck and returned with a slip of paper. On it, contained a copy of the Optimist Creed. The creed is as follows:

Promise Yourself ...
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.


John went on to tell me that he was a retired Marine who had served our country for many years and now had passed out over 7,000 copies of the creed.

"Some people can't handle it," he said. "This kind of stuff is too much for them.."

The creed was written in 1912 but is the creed for the organization Optimist International.

Optimist International is an association of more than 2,900 Optimist Clubs around the world dedicated to "Bringing Out the Best in Kids." Adult volunteers join Optimist Clubs to conduct positive service projects in their communities aimed at providing a helping hand to youth. With their upbeat attitude, Optimist Club members help empower young people to be the best that they can be.

Each Optimist Club determines the needs of the young people in its community and conducts programs to meet those needs. Every year, Optimists conduct 65,000 service projects and serve well over six million young people.

So on a daily basis a man who has seen things that would probably make anyone cynical or bitter is selling veggies and giving away optimism.

Thank you John for making my Wednesday even better than I thought it would be and for being someone who does their part to make everyday interactions more genuine.

If you'd like to meet John and get some great produce and support local growers, the Tustin Certified Farmers Market is every Wednesday from 9am-1pm in the farmers market lot on El Camino Real in Tustin, CA.

If you'd like to learn more about Optimist International, their website is www.optimist.org

Follow us on Twitter @retrningdignity

Returning Dignity Challenge #2

A new week and a new challenge!

How many of you remember "Romper Room"? Well, at the end of the show, Miss Sally would always bring out Magic Mirror. It was mirror she used to see all the children at home who were watching and she would call out the children by name. You always hoped she would call out your name. "Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic Mirror, tell me today, have all my friends had fun at play?"

So this week we are all going to use the Magic Mirror.

I want you to learn someones name this week.

Where do you go on a daily or weekly basis? Who is that face behind the counter who is always helping you?

I want you to learn their name.

"But Darcy, I'm not very god with names. I know faces."

LEARN THEIR NAME. Even if it takes you a while. Do it. Even if you have to ask them their name four times this week. Do it.

How would you feel if someone you saw everyday, who you served in some way or another, didn't know your name and didn't truly acknowledge you? You might be sad or worse resentful.

So let's set about this with diligence. Let's make our everyday interactions less ordinary and more genuine.

Follow us on Twitter at @RetrningDignity and post whose name you are learning this week.

Here's a little Canadian Romper Room to enjoy on this Monday

People Suck

People Suck.

We've all said it or believed it at some point. Usually because in some simple interaction, someone snapped at us or was bossy or just plain old mean.

But those folks didn't start off that way. People treat other people badly, because people treated them badly in the first place.

So it's easy to wanna be mean and rude right back to them, but we can either continue that suck cycle or try and break it. The whole, "kill them with kindness" thing.

So the next time someone is sucky to you in everyday life, step back, take a moment and return their suck with kindness. I didn't say passive aggressiveness. I mean real kindness.

(And now to borrow from my brother a little)

Because kindness has the word kin at it's root, which means related, family. And as humans we are all kin. Not necessarily kin we would choose or that we like, but we are kin.

So help stop the suck a little today.

Now to talk a little on the name challenge from 2 weeks ago. How's that been going? I do pretty well at it but in the hustle bustle of a restaurant last night failed to get any ones name. Boo me. But that's why it's all a challenge.

So keep it going and post in the comments or in the Twitter feed (@retrningdignity) how's the challenge has effected you. And on the Twitter feed you can also watch one of my fave SNL skits that drives home the point of the challenge!

Have a great weekend.

A Different Kind of Poverty

The word, "care" has been on my mind a lot lately. We do most things in our lives in order to get other people to care for us. I could even take it as far as saying we do most things in order to get people to love us. And it can be as simple as just wanting people to like us. Whatever you want to call it, people want other people to pay attention either a little or a lot.

I have been reading some quotes from Mother Teresa. Whatever faith you practice or come from, you have to admit she was amazing. This quote has been rolling around in my head for a few months now,

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."


-Mother Teresa
I agree, it's actually much easier to physically feed someone than it is to feed someones soul. And plenty of people are starving out there.

If we start with the notion that everyone is motivated out of the need to bee wanted, loved, liked or cared for, we really start to see peoples actions in a different light. (Here's where I may step on some toes)


Take plastic surgery for instance. I live, as I've stated before, in Orange County. Plastic surgery is everywhere you look in this county. Most people who are not on board with plastic surgery view it as shallow and vain. Can that assumption be true, sure.


But what if that person is just so lonely that they think the only way to get someone to care for them is to alter their appearance.

I've seen and read stories of women that have undergone so many surgeries that they ended up destroying themselves in order to just be noticed and liked.

Is this an extreme example of how far people will go, yes and no. Plastic surgery is more commonplace these days than ever before.

As human we will do things to get any type of attention, even if it's negative, just to be acknowledged.

So where does this  fit into The Returning Dignity Project? If people will go to such extremes to be cared for, then simple gestures of care can go further than we ever imagined.

Often times, people are so thirsty for love and care that they will drink from a polluted well. I've done it myself.

Our choice everyday is whether we are offering people true care or just more of the same pollution they are used to.


Your challenge this week has been to call someone by name. Have you been doing it? Have you really though about how far that goes with someone who feels unseen, unknown or uncared for?


It can go pretty far.


Look I'm not perfect by any means and I'm not asking any of you to be either. I'm learning as much during this project as all f you are.

The next time judgement comes to your mind about someones appearance or attitude, just remember they may just be asking for you to care.

Naraynan Krishnan, Someone Who Inspires Me.

I am posting this video of the because the video is about the work that Narayanan Krishnan does not only flies in the face of social norms in his city and country, but also flies in the face of his faith.

Some of you have seen this video via Facebook, but it deserves the attention it has been getting. On my first viewing, it made me weep. And since then, each time I watch it, I tear up. Narayanan reminds me of why the Returning Dignity Project is important. Why treating each other better is important.

Naraynan does a lot by doing such simple things. We can do simple things too.