And some days, I wonder if I am doing enough. When I look around and see the world in so much chaos, crisis and pain.
Perhaps you may wonder the same...What can you do to help? Are you doing enough?
I'm reminded of a story by Alan Cohen from one of my all time favorite books, The Dragon Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
A young father was beginning to feel a little annoyed with his five year old son, who was asking him endless questions while he was trying to read the evening newspaper. Seizing on a scheme to buy him some quiet time, dad found a picture of the Earth in the newspaper, cut it out, tore it into little pieces, and gave it to the child to reassemble as a jigsaw puzzle.
To the father's astonishment, the child was back minutes later with the picture perfectly intact. "Look, Daddy, the world is back together!" the child exclaimed. The father was amazed at how quickly the boy had finished. "How did you do it so fast?" he asked. "It was easy! First, I couldn't fit the picture of the Earth together. Then I looked on the other side of the pieces, and there were pictures of the parts of a man. It was much easier to put the man together, so that's what I did. And when the man came together, so did the Earth."
And so it is. Throughout the ages, the wise sages have all taught this truth. "If you want to bring about peace in the world, first bring peace within yourself" .... "Don't worry about reforming others, reform yourself!" ... "The peace that you would have others find must first be found in your own heart."
While it may seem selfish to focus on ourselves, the truth is that we can each make more of a contribution when we start living more consciously from a place of peace, kindness and compassion. First for ourselves and then all that goodness spreads outward naturally.
We may feel that we have little power to change the destiny of our world, but it is through each of us individually that the world is changed.
Gandhi said it best: "Be the change that you wish to see in the world!" Together we can do this...
All it takes is one little burning match to start a forest fire. Let's LIGHT this world on fire with LOVING❤️KINDNESS!