During these challenging times, when so many feel lost, angry, disenfranchised, disconnected, fearful, etc., I’ve been searching for light to illuminate all the darkness.
No easy task.
No one seems to have escaped the negative results of what’s happening in our country and world today.
Including me.
It affects body, mind and soul.
It’s all palpable.
The discourse.
The fear.
The angry interactions.
The selfishness.
We all need to take a collective breath and dig deep to handle what are often our worst traits.
What kind of life and country do we really want to have?
No easy answers.
But we all need to ask them of ourselves.
How are we contributing to the stormy atmosphere?
Because that’s where real change begins.
Like other writers and change agents whose work I appreciate and learn from, I started my Sunday noting the blessings all around me.
It seems like the whole world has gone mad.
But the reality is that the majority of people are hard-working, caring, loving individuals who believe that we are taking the wrong path.
They want to do what’s right.
Correcting our collective wrong turns begins with even the simplest actions made by each one of us.
Today, I started giving thanks while folding laundry.
That’s how I fed my faith life today.
With a simple act of folding colorful, orange towels.
Most of us do this on a regular basis.
Some complain about it.
But I decided to make it a spiritual lesson today in gratitude.
With each loving fold of my towels, I stayed in the present.
I thought about how fortunate I was to have nice towels to use after a hot shower available to me daily.
Another blessing.
I thought about how often we think we have to make big changes to impact world change.
In my Sunday Spirit moments, I was reminder that often it is the little things that help create the change we seek in the world.
Lovingly preparing a meal.
Taking care of our children’s needs.
Reading them the same bedtime story over again because it brings them such joy and comfort, too.
Saying a kind word to overworked retail staff trying their hardest to meet our expectations during times of staffing shortages.
Having respectful conversations instead of yelling and swearing at one another.
Checking in on a loved one struggling in some way.
Visiting someone ill or incarcerated or lonely.
Giving a homeless pet a new lease on life through adoption.
Feeding ourselves through healthy food choices, balanced (truthful) news, and readings that soothe our wearing souls, not further depletes them.
Watering thirsty flowers that depend on us for sustained life and reward us with inside beauty through stunning bouquets.
Nature is a great healer.
There are so many ways we can help make ourselves and others better people.
Our seemingly simple choices can lead to a more compassionate world.
Like smiling at a stranger or sharing conversation on a park bench.
After observing a tired supermarket cashier complain about her job to a customer recently, I asked the young woman if she knew how important her job was.
She seemed perplexed.
I explained that the interactions she has during her shift with so many people held the power to change their lives and her own for the better.
She could help make each customer’s day a little brighter, with a smile, an upbeat hello or a thank you for their business.
She said she hadn’t thought of it that way before.
By pointing out the power she held in her seemingly simple position to impact others positively, her mood suddenly changed.
Simply because I took the time not to chastise her, but to point out the power she held to do better. Be better.
I pointed out that she and her job mattered.
Kindness shared with others matters.
We need much more of that today.
When we focus on the positive and recognize and celebrate the beauty and gifts in others, it changes things.
It changes us.
Like a simple act of folding laundry, it can help remind us of just how blessed we really are.
Blessings that spill over into creating a more beautiful world.
One person and one simple act at a time.
There’s big power and healing in that.
Tap into it and see for yourself.
Sunday blessing.
While folding laundry.
In what seemingly simple ways are you nurturing your tired spirit during these especially challenging times?