Something well meaning adults used to say to me often. As an idealistic justice seeking youngster I ached to change the world. Stop war, cease starvation ,house homeless people who were living in doorways surrounded by carrier bags. In the sixties some of those people were referred to as bag ladies. I often imagined myself in their shoes,how it might feel to carry everything you owned. I imagined what I would snatch if I were suddenly a refugee, how many layers of clothes I could possibly wear, what actually were my most precious possessions?
Maybe in hindsight I was stretching my capacity for empathy,seeking a path to my profession ;a way to spiritual values, compassion; deciding what really is important to aim for in this world of multiple choices.
This morning I realized. You can't change the world.
However, you can change yourself and in changing yourself you might just be able change the world. Not the whole world all at once of course but the world of each moment.
I spent some time sitting with one of my helpers,a set of cards based on the Lakota sweat lodge. I am feeling a bit fragile at the moment, world horror , war, covid enquiry, personally being visited by one of the many seasonal lurgies going around. So a bit vulnerable. I ask the cards.
What do I need now ? Prayer. The sacred pipe that leads to your centre. Grandfather.
I go to grandfather and cry on his shoulder. What next ? Wakan Tanka. Great Spirit,creator in everything; in four legs and two and I am another you.An open heart.
Thinking on this open heart and what does it mean,the times my open heart has been hurt, trust and innocence taken . The wounded child. We live in the land of the wounded child. We are no different from each other in varying degrees but we who are not being bombed,starved,hurt , abused , might know within our own hearts what that might feel like. Being Human we might be able to pray and cry on Grandfather's shoulder, or take refuge in Grandmother's wisdom.
We are beings who are becoming. A long way to go, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, says Confucius. We can change ourselves, become agents for the open heart and in our own small way, a little each day ,in changing ourselves, we can begin to change the world.