Dear Jessica Brennan,
I work in the nonprofit sector and I can tell you that a lot of the conversations we have revolve around whether or not we are doing enough. How can we help more people with the resources we have? How can we work smarter? It seems that if you are going to work in the charity world then you have to come to terms with the fact that these are the questions that will greet you each new day and put you to bed at night. How can we do more? Did we do enough? This motivation is what keeps the machine moving forward.
As a creative person, I also feel this artistically. Will I bring everything to the planet that I am able to, over one short lifetime? The fear of running out of time before I run out of things to create is very real.
This is how I calm myself down. I say, “Sharon, it isn’t all about you.” (Earth shattering news, I know).
Apparently, I am not responsible for it all, and neither are you. All the need on planet earth. All the creative endeavours. So, the very good news about this is as follows.
If today I help get one family into an affordable home, and you take one bag to the food bank. If someone else golfs in a charity tournament and another helps a street level woman at risk. If you smile at a stranger, and I thank a server. It all adds up.
If I write a poem and someone else teaches a clarinet lesson, paints a mural, dances a jig. All of these things are just one small thing. Yet, all of these things elevate the human experience in harmony, which means that a little is enough so long as it is done consistently.
If a police officer settles one noise complaint, she might think, “Wow, that’s what I went to school for!”, (sarcastically), but add that to the person who fosters a dog, the guy who wrote a song, the neighbour that checked in on an elderly person, the loonie that was dropped into the guitar case and the bike that was gifted to charity, and before you know it, where there was once one lone person wondering if what they were doing really mattered at all, you have a tsunami of light swirling around the world boosting the spirits of humankind with positive experiences.
It is a group effort.
So, Dear Reader, just so I know you heard me, I will repeat the most important sentence in this blog.
“All of these things elevate the human experience in harmony, which means that a little is enough so long as it is done consistently.”
Love,
Mum xo
