Some interesting manifestations this week and important lessons learned

The spirit of gifting is spreading!  Two members of the Stewards of Terra Mater team are now delegating their own steam to other people to help them get started as well.  Bravo to @cheneats and @skycae for paying it forward with delegations of your own.  What a wonderful and generous gesture!

I also had a very interesting experience with a user whom will remain anonymous.  I had a few steem left over, so I delegated the little steem I had to them and it caused a fantastic discussion which resulted in me taking the delegation back and learning an important lesson.  One thing I did not realize is that some people here don't want to be helped and I totally get it.  To accomplish something on ones own has specific benefits as well.  The struggle and time it takes to build a following and write a blog takes a lot of time and hard work.  Some people want to go through that challenge and do the hard work.  It is personal and I applaud the individual for having the awareness and courage to explore why my gift did not 'feel right' and to ask that it be withdrawn.  

So this brings up an interesting moral dilemma.  Even when gifting, we need to be careful that we do no harm.  Some people just want it easy, so they beg for hand outs because they don't want to do the work.  Gifting to them would feed into their slumber and not build any strength, character or the social skills required to participate in a healthy community.  In fact, it would weaken the community.  Tough love would dictate that we confront these people about their slumber ways.  If we give to them, they will atrophy which would not be healthy for them at all.  Others, like the individual I just spoke about, are driven and motivated to do the work because they know the experience will bring them strength, confidence, accomplishment and other non-tangible and tangible benefits.  By gifting to them, we would be taking away those opportunities for personal growth.  

Now I am confronted with finding the individual who is motivated, working hard and has the desire and determination but just needs that bridge built so that he / she can find the success that they are working hard to achieve.  They are not begging but instead are actively participating and commenting on posts, writing meaningful high quality blogs, interacts with people, working hard to write engaging comments and demonstrates an over all commitment to excellence, self improvement, self-governance and a genuine commitment to the community.  

The old saying goes:  

Feed a man a fish, feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, feed him for a life time.

I want to focus on the later part of that saying.  But it also requires tools, skills and opportunity, not just teaching!  The man may be a master angler and have the best gear, but if there is no water to fish in, how can he put those skills to use?  We are all responsible to ensure that our brothers and sisters have all three components to being self-sufficient.  We may need to feed the man in an emergency to preserve life when he / she is in immediate danger.  But the long term goal is to help one another acquire the tools, skills and opportunities.  The WILL to fish then rests with the individual and it is that WILL that I look for.  

I think it is really cool that some people want to build their own fishing pole, figure out how to fish for themselves and are willing to walk a thousand miles to get to a spot where he / she can try it out.  Bravo to those individuals!  

I believe that every Steward of Terra Mater are individuals who possess the talents, skills, desire, strength and determination to feed themselves.  I pray that my gift provided the resources so that they can build their own bridge so that the opportunities for success are presented to them.  That is my intent, but some times I don't see very well.  :)  From what I can tell, it seems to be working for the most part.  Here is the latest update for the team.  We will have a minnow within a week, who can swim in a much larger ocean and who built the bridge all by himself!  

 @cheneats
@earthmother
@yagoub
@skycae
@carey-page
@harvardhomestead
@realtreebivvy
@wisewoof
@salmanbukhari54  

Stewards of Terra Mater:  There is an invitation to you to join @pennsif on his new show.  If you are open to being interviewed for about 15 - 20 minutes, then contact @pennsif to make arrangements. You can catch his first show on his blog to get an idea of what he is looking for and the format of his show.

For those of you who like to debate:  This weeks debate has been upvoted by a few whales so the prizes are considerable this week.  You may want to get involved with this weeks debate.  

https://steemit.com/ungrip/@wwf/debate-forum-week-10-trade-agreements