You Are Bending History
How can we continue caring day after day without any assurance that what we are doing makes a difference in the grand sweep of history and evolution? We can realize that everyone’s life happens in a particular here and a particular now and with particular people, and that this is the situation in which the challenge is presented to us of being relevant or not, of being ethical or not, of making a difference or not. Then every encounter is experienced as a crisis or test of who we are and what we stand for.
Everyone who ever “changed history” or nudged evolution in a new direction did so in a particular moment, place and circumstance. It was then and there that they manifested their intimate values and principles through the risk taking of their own behavior and action. It was at that precise moment and location that cause and effect began to ripple outward. In that sense everything we do makes a difference. But does it make a difference that makes a difference?
It does if we are fully present and invested in what we are doing, if we are manifesting our deep intention with our complete attention. As often quoted, Gandhi’s admonition is to be the change we want for the world. I would add, moment by moment, location by location, situation by situation. Embodying vision and values is what it is all about. Walking the talk. Putting your life on the line. Going for broke. Holding nothing back. All or nothing. If not you, who? If not now, when?
How you are parenting your children or treating your spouse or relating to your colleagues at work or exercising your responsibilities as a citizen or a consumer makes a critical difference. Your choices and actions are creating the future of life on Earth. You can live your life on behalf of others or only for yourself. But whichever you choose, without you, the future will not be the same. You and I are more powerful than we would wish to acknowledge or be aware. What we do or do not do changes the world.
(Note: Photo of Joseph W. Mathews)