Beat Your Wings, Change The World

With all that is happening to harm our world today it is easy to fall prey to despair. Too often despair leads to a feeling of powerlessness and a sensation of being overwhelmed. We stop. We give up. This is not what the world needs.

What we need at this critical juncture is hope and optimism. We want to feel that what we are doing is making a meaningful difference.

Sure there is a lot of harmful stuff going on, but so is there a lot of beauty in the world. There is a lot to be hopeful and optimistic about, and when we indulge these, we honour the good works that are right now changing the world.

Here are a few reasons I am feeling hope and optimism this morning:

- if a butterfly's beating wings can cause weather changes, then I trust that my practice of simplicity also has far reaching effects that can not be understood with conventional, limiting thinking.

The Butterfly Effect says that small changes can lead to great results. What we do as individuals matters. Live a harmonious, even anonymous life, and change the world.

- we have had everything we need to create a better world for many generations. With each generation that passes we are adopting more and more of these things, and are open to adopting more.

- ecological awareness is growing causing more and more of us to recognize that transforming the way we do things is required if we are to save ourselves. With each passing day we are more open to entertaining grand ideas and wholesale shifts. Readiness to do what is required is reaching a tipping point.

- an increasing sector of the population knows how to get stuff, but find its acquisition empty and leaves them wanting. Consumerism isn't getting the same bang for its buck. We are looking for something freer, simpler, more authentic, creative and satisfying.

- as a global family, we are leaving the concept of scarcity behind and adopting a new ethos of abundance. If there is enough to give a small group of individuals more wealth than over half the human population, then there is obviously enough to ensure everyone has a decent standard of living.

Nature is abundant. We are nature. We live with abundance surrounding us, and are now starting to see this.

I am seeing more out there about providing everyone with a Guaranteed Annual Income than I have ever seen before. All of Mother Nature should benefit from her gifts.

I know that we are doing this thing. We are changing the world. It is constantly happening, quietly, imperceptibly and inevitably. Rather than despair at what is not yet happening, I am refocusing on the hope and optimism that is provided by all the good things that ARE happening.

Don't look for the good news to be reported in corporate newspapers. I would love to see the headline "Hope and Optimism Sweeps The Planet", but what you are more likely to find there is despair and fear. Despair and fear that they tell you can be alleviated by buying more stuff. That is not good news - that is old news.

Where you will find the good news in your daily life. Little moments of magic as you and those around you make decisions based on the heart rather than the wallet. That has far reaching consequences that will lead us to a more compassionate planet.

Beat your wings, change the world.