Bonanzle and Ebay as Spiritual Teachers

Zen Masters, Dolphins, Wise Elders, and Tomatoes. Its a blog post that I wrote recently about finding wisdom in unexpected places. Like a tomato garden... and upon further reflection, an e-commerce venue or two.

Tomorrow marks my one year anniversary selling on Bonanzle. I arrived on the shores of Bonanzle with a boatload of other refugees from ebay, huddled masses seeking a new marketplace in which to set up our shops. Bonanzle whispered to us...

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

On February 1, I posted the following blog entry:

"As many of you know, I have a new storefront on Bonanzle.com Bonanzle is a brand new e-commerce and social marketing site that reached a million listings in 6 months, and was recently voted the best ebay alternative according to Examiner.com. It's a grassroots effort, championed by a growing base of forward-thinking veteran sellers, who share a community-centric, cooperative spirit. Management is responsive, accountable, hands-on, and creative. There's team spirit at Bonanzle, a refreshing change for sellers migrating from ebay who have felt that they had become more like spectators watching their on-line marketplace storefronts being managed more and more by the venue and less and less by themselves. While Bonanzle expects business owners manage their own businesses, they simply provide the venue, albeit a venue that listens, really listens, to the wants and needs of the sellers who are setting up shop there."

I went on to announce a line of Bonanzle bath and body products I had developed to fund-raise for the fledgling site, giving 20% of the sales to the venue on top of the $24 voluntary monthly membership fee I happily paid for the privilege. (You can read it in its entirety if you are so inclined, here.) It was an exciting time, everyone had their sleeves rolled up, generosity in all of its magnificent forms flowed freely! And, of course Bonanzle flourished!

Bonanzle has really grown in the past year, with now over 2 million listings on its books! Many features have been added and tweaked for the better, and yet some key elements are still left wanting creating real barriers to sales. There are a lot of bells and whistles to play with, and the new syndicated selling and affiliate programs promise to drive traffic to the site. Although I no longer keep a memebership there, and so I no longer sell BonanzleSudzle, I maintain a storefront at Bonanzle, and I do believe that the venue has the potential to take off. In my heart of hearts, I hope the huddled masses will find the promised land.

All in all, my experience at Bonanzle has been extremely positive: I have made great –lifelong– friends through the forums and I have learned e-commerce marketing skills that are transferable to my own website and beyond. I have witnessed the beautiful spirit of community and cooperation soar to the stars! And, although there have been some ugly moments that left me scratching my head, all in all it has been a wonderful learning curve and a fertile field for personal growth. And so, this Sunday morning I raise a Mimosa to my fellow Bonanzlers, in gratitude and celebration!

Cheers!

It is my regular Sunday morning habit to write, so I took a moment of reflection and focused on the past year and my adventures in e-commerce. I'll call it my Bonanzle Awakening as it was the event of my journey beyond ebay and my anniversary there that has inspired me. I think it's a celebration of personal growth that can be translated beyond its application to my e-commerce businesses and marketing plans. And so I'll share...

Awakening... at some point you realize that it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for fulfillment, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that any guarantee of "happily ever after" must begin with you and in the process, a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You affirm that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen, is different from working toward making it happen. You focus and get going!

You awaken to the fact that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say. You decide to be true to your truth and to take care of yourself and in the process a sense of safety & security is born of self-reliance.

You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for. You remember that it is truly in giving that we receive and that there is powerful joy in creating and contributing. You stand firm in your conviction that principles such as honesty and integrity are not outdated ideals but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build your business, and life.

You humble yourself to the truth that you don't know everything; that it's not your job to save the world and that you can't teach a pig to sing. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO. You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

And, then you learn about love.

You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You learn about trust.

You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity and respect and you won't settle for less. You take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that life isn't always fair, you don't always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people. You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You learn to be thankful.

In my Awakening I vow to take responsibility for myself, and I make myself a promise to never betray myself and to never ever settle for less than my heart's desire. I promise to keep my chin up, boobies out, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.

I am thankful.

May you be blessed!

Counting blessings

Autumn in New Hampshire is spectacular!

My kids are getting ready to go back to school. As a young mother, I eagerly anticipated fall for this very reason! But now that my sons are in college, and only sometimes home in the summer, I am cherishing these fleeting summer days. This summer, all three have been together here at the lake for the first time in five years! I am mindful that at 24, 22, and 21 years old, they may not have another season like this for a very long time, if ever again. As one goes off to grad school, another for a year abroad, and my youngest to his new off-campus apartment with all that entails, excitement and anticipation fill our conversations. With many dreams realized, an endless stream of possibilities are awaiting exploration. Blessings counted. A change of season, a new chapter. I love this story!

But a change of season also can bring disappointment. Beyond empty nests and fewer faces at the dinner table, it can focus our attention on what hasn't changed in our lives and what we might have endured in our past.

It's easy to get stuck in the past. Perhaps you've suffered a setback, experienced a rejection, or had your hopes and dreams dashed. You might be disappointed in a relationship, your work, or your family life. Perhaps your high expectations have not been met. Perhaps things just haven't gone as planned.

Some people have a talent for bouncing back from difficult experiences, and I have been inspired by them since I was young. I have taught my children to look at adversity, disappointment and challenge from the perspective of, "Wow didn't see that one coming. Now isn't this interesting... what gift is this, really?" Nothing is good or bad, it simply IS. How I react is my choice. If I choose disappointment, I quickly make a better choice. I think it might be more difficult to learn this response as an adult, but it can be done. Practice makes perfect, eventually...

Many people lack the resilience to courageously (as I say) "chin up and boobies out" carry on after a disappointment. I need to be remember to be sensitive to that tendency if not within my self or my children, in acknowledgment of humanity's collective and sometimes heart-wrenching experience of waking up to our personal power and ability to intuit choices on behalf of our highest good. I need to remember to have patience and compassion for those who feel victimized by life.

I hate to disappoint you... but I can be a little impatient with the "poor-me" crowd. I'm working on that. But lets all work together...

I think a good first step is to understand the forces that drive disappointment in our modern culture. One is consumerism. The marketplace needs us to think we deserve and therefore must have all the toys, treasures, and pleasures we can get. People and nations have accumulated huge personal and collective debts as they have tried to have it all, all at one time, now, even when they can't afford it.

I think another thing that drives disappointment is unrealistic expectations about who we can be and what we can achieve. These are often fed by the media with its emphasis on success stories, skinny blondes and reality?shows. Our goals are imposed upon us rather than created by us. When we struggle and still fail, we think there is something wrong with us, when it could be that we just took on someone else's dream, some one else's reality. In fact, we may not even have the gifts and talents for a particular choice! It may not be the best time in our lives, or our karma to travel a different path. And when we don't get where we think we should be, we can hit bottom...

But, here's the good part: Our disappointments are blessings if we can see them as a starting point for fulfillment. We can, through divine grace and our own diligence and creativity, change the way we live and the choices we make. Here are a few suggestions:

Ask yourself, what am I disappointed about? Name your disappointments, and then let them go. Do not keep replaying them over and over in your mind. If necessary, forgive someone who has hurt or disappointed you. Also, forgive yourself for being disappointed.

Release your disappointment. Find a stone that signifies your disappointment (it can be as large as you want) and throw it in a pond, or river, or ocean. Or, make a list of disappointments on a piece of paper and then burn the paper in a bowl; as you watch the smoke going up, ask the God/Goddess of your experience to help you release these particular disappointments.

Count your blessings and know in your heart that you have more than enough. See your wealth not in terms of outward possessions but in terms of the spiritual intangibles of faith, hope, and love.

Don't allow your ideas about what should or could happen to determine whether you feel happy or sad. Remember, the future is the domain of the Creator. Stay in the present. Now, chin up, boobies out, carry on!

May you be blessed!

The photo is of Mt. Washington. Snow on the peak, my favorite view as I drove my children to school on fall days. Seasons changing, back to school, warm apple pie at the end of the day...