The situation is bigger than me...
Posted on January 21, 2010 by Priscilla Hansen, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.
We may feel small and insignificant, but we can still make Stone Soup....
*Haiti.
*
It’s all I really have to say… unless you don’t have TV, radio, newspapers or Internet, I may have to elaborate more… but assuming you do (since you are reading an internet blog) Haiti is all I really have to say.
The first few days I was glued to the news reports. It reminded me of the devastation we witnessed during hurricane Katrina… times 100. I choked back tears each time the camera panned to the children of the devastation – either wailing for their mothers in the street, or laying lifeless at the make-shift triage’s set up in the fields.
I turned off the TV, and sat down to write out a check to the American Red Cross. My “meager” donation was a speck of dust compared to the mountain that is needed. I felt helpless. The situation is too big. I am too small.
I started perusing Facebook, and many of the comments left by my friends were the same as my feelings – “its awful”… “please text more money”… “what can I do?” … “I feel so horrible for the children of Haiti”
Then I remembered reading a story back when I was studying to become a life coach… a story about a butterfly … a small (seemingly insignificant butterfly) who fluttered her wings on one side of the Earth, and the wind caused a tornado on the other side or the Earth. (if memory serves me, it was the study of chaos)
The lesson to the Coaches was to teach that we do effect the world in very big, immeasurable ways, one small act at a time. It’s all reciprocal. It causes a domino effect in the energy of the Universe, and the small actions travel like the large rings in a pond cast from the toss of a small stone. One kind smile can travel to the eyes of someone who needed it most. You trust the Universe to deliver your message for you like a note in a bottle on the waves of the ocean… If the message is sent with determination, will, and purpose, it will be received by the person who is meant to find it.
So, for self-preservation, I have decided to turn away from the news programs. I know the devastation is there, and I pray for the survivors to be eased of pain and hunger, and the deceased to rest in peace. I have sent in my small donation, but the real difference I can make is right here in front of me. I am going to send a message in a bottle to the people of Haiti. Not physically of course – but with small things – random acts of kindness to one person at a time. I trust the Universe will deliver my message to the people who need it most.
We are all effected by a recession right now, and it may not be easy or possible to reach in our pockets to help. That’s OK. God gives everyone gifts (or as I like to say “tools”) to use to make this world a better place. I like the story of the village making a soup from a stone. Everyone adds a little here, a little there, and presto! We all feast.
What ingredient do you have to share?
In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa
~ Live Well, Be Well ~
Coach Priscilla
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