What Matters
(a re-share from last year…because it matters)
Spring has returned.
The earth
is like a child
that knows poems.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
___________________
Can ONE Word change a life?
Can ONE Person change the world?
Sometimes it feels like all the words have been said. I mix them up and let them flow in a slightly different order, but it’s apparent the words are the same.
Yesterday, a couple of words I don’t like to hear entered my awareness.
Apathy. Complacency.
I don’t know anyone who would actually LOVE to receive one of these words to define their current state of being.
When the words were used, they were not about me…yet, as we talked about the state of the world right now, how so many are feeling helpless, hopeless, complacent, and perhaps even apathetic, I realized something.
I realized that, yes, I am complacent…at times, even apathetic.
While I would like to believe I am not defined by these words, I have to be honest and say that I absolutely hold these words inside of me…every single day.
I hold them inside of me.
Then, every day, I make the choice to move from the space of apathy and complacency into a space of empathy and compassion, one act of love at a time.
Normally, it’s these acts of love I share with the world.
But those less-inspiring words (and others) are definitely here, and I sometimes struggle with their hold on me.
What I’ve learned to do, most days, is let the apathy and complacency be transformed by simple acts of compassion.
Some days, it’s not enough. The world seems beyond my help.
Other days, I feel the movement from the less to the more. I feel the opening of my heart as I allow that movement to happen. I feel the expansion of my life as I move through the complacent, sometimes apathetic, business of creating an everyday life.
Today, I’m grateful for these words, and the realization that they live in me. Somehow, that realization is helping me have more compassion for myself.
More compassion for you, too. Because I know we are ALL simply doing the best we can with whatever words are guiding us to take action, or wait complacently (even apathetically) until the next right action comes.
Whatever words are in you today, choose to let them move through you with love.
If you’re stuck, consider doing a small act of compassion. Smile at a stranger. Plant flowers. Share a meal with a neighbor. Give to something you care about.
Perhaps this is the way we will change the world…one word, one act, one person at a time.
Find them @ 
You’ll love the simple eloquence of this unique combination of poetry and spiritual insight on the Art of Becoming.