Exploring Personal Identity
Where I am From Template The purpose of writing this poem is a creative way to others know aspects of your identity. The details you put into the poem change every time you write one. As you grow older, different things become important to you and you face new experiences.
I am from
__________________________________________________________________________ (ordinary item that characterizes you) (your favorite product name) (some item that you hold precious)
I am from
_____________________________________________________________________________ (description of where you want to live) (three adjectives that define it)
I am from
_____________________________________________________________________________ (natural item, such as a flower) (the importance of that item) I am from
___________________________________________________________________________ (family tradition) (family trait) (names of two family members) (another family name)
I am from
____________________________________________________________________________ (description of family tendency) (another tendency) (something you were constantly told as a child) (another thing you were told)
I am from
______________________________________________________________________________ (representation of religion or culture or lack of it) (Description of what that religion, culture or non-culture means to you) I'm from
______________________________________________________________________________ (place of birth and family ancestry) (two food items representing your family) (specific family story about a specific person and detail) (another detail) (a detail about a family member)
I am
______________________________________________________________________ (a dream you have)
__________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
I am from
____________________________________________________________________________
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ROOTS OF SERVICE EXPLORATION
From the Shinnyo-en Foundation Website http://sef.org/about-sef/our-peace-initiative/
"A path can begin with a single pebble. Peace can begin with a single act.
As the world population has grown beyond six billion, Shinnyo-en Foundation’s peace initiative, “Six Billion Paths to Peace,” evolved into Infinite Paths to Peace. It is our hope that this initiative will continue encouraging ALL of us to explore and identify how our values, talents and passions can be used in our daily lives to serve others. Your contribution to the world might start small like the first steps making way for a larger path, but we believe peace can begin with a single act regardless of its size.
The core principles and assumptions embedded in the initiative have not changed. Following this, our Paradigm of Service describes a process that might help you begin a journey of finding what your path to peace is. We hope that with Infinite Paths to Peace and our Paradigm of Service you will live your life fully and intentionally for the sake of creating a more harmonious and peaceful world.
Shinnyo-en Foundation’s Peace Initiative: Infinite Paths to Peace
Infinite Paths to Peace is an initiative to inspire people to reflect upon the individual contributions that each of us can make to create more harmony in an interconnected world.
As humans, we have experiences and histories that are individual and idiosyncratic, and shape who we are. However, regardless of our differences, our lives are linked by common desires to live our lives fully with a sense of happiness, acceptance and peace.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed or hopeless by the suffering, injustice or violence in our world. Just as an act of violence sends shock waves, affecting everyone around, so too does an act of service. Each of us has a choice. You can turn away and ignore the challenges. You can react to challenges with anger and frustration. Or, you can approach challenges with an attitude of service and notice that there is much you can do. Choosing to see the world from the perspective of serving others creates the possibility for greater joy and peace.

A teenager loved to scrapbook. She lived close to a residence for people suffering from dementia. She asked the caretaker if she could help somehow and the caretaker said that making scrapbooks for the residents would help them connect and hold on to memories that they had. The families of the residents were thrilled to see how engaged their loved ones were with the books.

Beehives were long outlawed in neighborhoods in the city. With the increase in Colony Collapse in beehives, one student suggested that his school enlist the help of bee keepers to host a beehive on top of their school. The school agreed, but the city council did not. Students investigated the condition and alternatives, prepared a presentation and action steps and attended a city council meeting, urging the council to change the law. The request was turned down, but that was not acceptable to the students. They continued to build support in the neighborhood, going door to door, educating their neighbors about the declining bee population that would impact their food supply and flower propagation. Students built enough support that when they returned to the city council, new legislation was enacted, enabling not just the school to host a bee hive, but other community members to do so as well.
Infinite Paths to Peace represents the idea that it is possible to inspire new reverberations of peace through service if we each step up to deeply reflect on our values and passions, and make a commitment to offer our unique contributions to the world. There are so many ways to serve and walk towards peace. We want to know: What’s yours?
What follows is our Paradigm of Service. It explains how we approach service and offers a list of reflection questions along the way to help you define what your path to peace is. We invite you to actualize this initiative and paradigm by heightening your awareness of self and your unique ability to create peace in your community and beyond.
Our Paradigm of Service
Service remains at the heart of Shinnyo-en Foundation. We believe that a service-orientated life provides all people with the possibility of joy and peace. Because of this, we focus on engaging young people in service, and in promoting a kind of service that is based upon thealignment of an individual’s heart, mind and actions.
What is Service? Rather than being a particular kind of action, we see service as the result of a particular type of intention. We see service as a combination of both the external actions we take in the world, and the internal motivations that drive our actions. We believe that the most meaningful form of leadership through service happens when a person is aligned – when their attitudes, beliefs and values line up with their heart and outward actions in a way that brings about maximum joy and energy. By looking into what motivates you to serve or lead, you can make more conscious decisions about the actions you take. As you become more aware of the connections between your actions and your attitudes, beliefs or values, you can learn to shift any of those elements so that service can become more meaningful to you.
Identifying Your “Roots and Fruit”: Exploration of one’s self is the most difficult, and yet the most accessible in this view of service. Every individual can begin to explore their own roots of service. To begin this reflection process, imagine yourself as a tree. The flowers and fruit of the tree represent the outcomes of other-centered actions. They represent the specific ways in which you bring greater joy, harmony and positive energy to the world. Like the many types of trees, we all grow and blossom in many different ways.The part of the tree that exists below the surface of the ground represents the inner dimensions of service – the attitudes, beliefs and values that root an other-centered approach to life. Some of us have an extensive root structure, while others have a less complex version. These submerged, invisible dimensions of service are usually developed early in life through our experiences in our families and in religious, social, cultural or educational institutions. Often, they are unconscious until something inspires us to investigate ourselves more deeply. The trunk and branches of the tree represent the way in which the fruit and roots are connected. Inside the trunk, sap flows from the root systems up to the most distant bud to feed its growth. Our consciousness about the connections between our roots and fruit help us to act with purity and energy.You might consider asking the following questions to explore what your roots and fruit are and how they are connected.- What are your roots of service?
- Where do they come from?
- What motivates or inspires you to serve?
- What attitudes, beliefs or values support and sustain you in serving others?
- What is the fruit of your service?
- How are your roots and fruit connected?
- In what ways are you living out your core values right now?
- When have your values and actions felt in sync?
- When have they felt out of sync?
A Möbius strip, illustrated in blue in the diagram, is a symbol of a never-ending process. This is how we believe energy moves within oneself, constantly moving and adjusting.
- What relationships do you have that feel like they are in harmony? Why are these relationships the way they are?
- Where do you sense uneasiness in your relationships?
- What actions that are aligned with your values do you want to take to address the uneasiness?
- What clubs, groups or communities are you a part of?
- What is one value shared by two or more of these groups?
- How would you act as a catalyst to bring greater harmony to diverse groups?