Pathwalking 1
How can I make a difference?
This question comes up for me fairly often. I want to help other people see the world in the way that I see it. NOT in a ‘my way is the one true way’ idea at all. On the contrary – I want people to disagree with me. I want them to consider these words, and reject them if they disagree. I want them to think, to consider, to ponder their own view on similar topics.
I think too many people fall into the trap of being swayed by outside voices. Sometimes it is just so very very easy to let the opinions of others carry us along. Sometimes, as adults, its really nice not to have to be responsible.
But this comes with a price. And that price is an increasing inability to be ourselves.
The irony of my idea does not escape me. I state in one sentence that I want people to be themselves and not be swayed by outside voices – yet what am I but an outside voice trying to sway people to my world view?
I am not trying to sway you to support me for an office. I am not trying to sell you something. I am not trying to convert you to anything. I am not suggesting you oppose the views of another. And that, my friend, is my point.
We get easily caught up in mundane issues. We have jobs to pay the bills to pay for our mortgages, cars, clothes, et al. We have routines that carry us through our days, weeks, and months. We live linear lives, sunrise to sunset, complaining about a lack of time, a lack of ability, and the things we do not have. We watch people with enormous monetary, political, military, and verbal power manipulating machines far beyond our own lives in ways that do and do not effect every aspect of them. Worst of all, this leads us to deny our own empowerment.
I am guilty of this. I let myself be carried along by the same forces of this world. I punch the clock, pay the bills, have the same complaints. Yet I see the possibility, the potential, the awesome power held by EVERY SINGLE PERSON, poor and wealthy, wise and foolish, weak and strong, to BE very much more.
We all fixate on the goal. Sometimes it’s a small goal, like the paycheck being deposited into the bank every two weeks. Sometimes its larger, like paying off the mortgage, getting a promotion at work, achieving the weight loss, etc. The problem here is that in striving for the goal, we do not see our path. We are carried along, focused on a single point…and we miss opportunities. We miss alternatives. Sometimes, we miss amazing things.
There is that song that brings a tear to your eye. That color that warms your heart. That memory that makes you smile. That person you miss when not with you. Sunset. Starlight. Incredible sex.
These easily dismissed, readily shunted to a corner of our mind things, often taken for granted, are actually far greater than any goal. These things make up our memories. These moments of time we set aside for seemingly more important things are really what define us as individuals.
An aspect of my desire to make a difference is admittedly selfish. I am not just putting these words here in order to help YOU see the world as I see it. I am also doing this to remind myself of my own view…especially when I, too, get carried along by the journey to the goal, and overwhelmed by the every-day mundane demands of my materialistic lifestyle.
Previously in this journal, I expressed my desire not to make resolutions for 2012 – but instead to take actions. And so – in an effort to practice what I preach, so to speak – I am taking a weekly walk along the path. On my weekly walk, I am going to bring you along. If you choose to join me.
Maybe, when I take this walk, I will make a difference. Maybe, when I make a difference, you will consider how you can make a difference. Maybe, just maybe, we can begin to appreciate the path for what it is.
And maybe making this difference will brighten our corner of the world. Maybe the corner becomes a room. Maybe the room becomes the home. And maybe the light will chase out the dark, and we will find true happiness.
Because, when all is said and done, when the day is through, when we close our eyes and rest…isn’t happiness, ultimately, what we REALLY want?
As one of my new actions for 2012, this is the first in new weekly posts. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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